An 89-year-old woman proved age is no barrier to adventure by jumping 12,000ft from an aeroplane in her first skydive.

Hilda Kent, of Bampton took the plunge in a tandem jump to raise money for a lunch club for the elderly.

RAF parachute instructors had expected the children or grandchildren of the club's members to take up their offer of a jump, and were surprised when Miss Kent stepped forward.

She said: "It was a lovely day. It's a little bit scary until the parachute opens because you're dropping like a stone for a short while, you feel the wind and the air and the noise. Then of course once the parachute opens you get absolute peace, and the view made me think of England's green and pleasant land."

Miss Kent, who made a trip to base camp at Mount Everest when she was 65, has no immediate plans to try out other extreme sports. She said: "A parachute jump is a unique experience, unless you go bungee jumping -- and I wouldn't do that for all the tea in China."

Brize Norton-based parachute instructor Ft Sgt Thomas, who jumped with Miss Kent at RAF Weston-on-the-Green, said: "She did amazingly well."