Woman, 102, becomes Britain’s oldest skydiver

A 102-year-old woman has become the oldest skydiver in Britain after she jumped out of a plane at 7,000ft (2,133m).

Manette Baillie took on the jump on Sunday at Beccles Airfield to celebrate her birthday.

She has previously taken on other daring challenges including when she drove around Silverstone in a Ferrari at 130mph for her 100th birthday.

Mrs Baillie, from Benhall Green near Saxmundham in Suffolk, told BBC Radio 4 immediately after her jump she was “breathless”.

“It was a bit scary,” she said.

“I must admit I shut my eyes very firmly.

“I just want other people who are getting towards 80 and 90 not to give up anything. Just keep going.”

Prior to her jump, she told BBC Radio Suffolk she had “no idea” where her thrill-seeking attitude had come from.

“I’ve been so lucky to be fit and well that I’ve got to do something with it, that’s really the back of it,” she said.

“I can’t just waste it, other people are crippled with arthritis and I’m not.”

Mrs Baillie wanted to take on a skydive after hearing about a friend’s 85-year-old father who had done one.

She was told as soon as he landed he wanted to do it again.

“If an 85-year-old man can do it, so can I,” she said at the time.

Mrs Baillie was even once married to a paratrooper and served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the Second World War but had never considered a jump.

“I’m doing it for charity,” she explained.

“The first one is our local club, the Benhall and Sternfield Ex-Servicemen’s Club.

“It’s the centre of our village and the only one we have for the community to get together.

“It’s an old club, it was started at the end of the First World War for all of the ex-service people.

“The second charity is the Motor Neurone Disease Association because I have a great-niece suffering from it and it needs funds for research.

“The other is the East Anglia Air Ambulance. I’ve always been very fond of them.”

The air ambulance once saved her son’s life on the Isle of Wight after a diving accident in 1969.

She then began to support her local air ambulance charity in the East of England.

Every Saturday, she now holds a coffee morning at her cottage with everyone chipping in to donate money.

Mrs Baillie said this would likely be her final fundraising challenge.

“I shall be taking up knitting,” she joked.

Britain’s previous oldest parachutist was held by Verdun Hayes who in May 2017 jumped at the age of 101 and 38 days.

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