MANY who reach their ninth decade are happy to potter around the garden or take a stroll to the shops for their daily exercise.

But Moreton 82-year-old Geoff Matthews took himself off to do a sky dive and raised £2,850 for the Alzheimer’s charity.

This year, instead of throwing himself out of the plane he is going to ride on the outside and is booked in for a wing walking experience at Gloucester airport, near Cheltenham, on July 16.

Youngest daughter Caroline Scott said: “We lost my mother in 2014 to Alzheimer’s and cancer. My mother was a big charity supporter and my father wants to carry on supporting charities in her memory.

“This year dad is going to go wing walking and is trying to raise money for the Save the Children charity. I am helping him to raise some sponsorship as he did not tell me about the sky dive because he thought I would forbid him to do it,” she said.

“Not long after mum died he said out of the blue that he was going to jump out of a plane for charity. I said no. But he is very strong and he’s not afraid of anything. A year later he told me he’d done it,” she said.

As long as the weather is favourable, Mr Matthews will be strapped to a frame above the wings and propellers of the single-engine plane as it takes to the skies for the 10-minute flight, but this time Caroline will be there to watch him.

“I am looking forward to it. I don’t do ordinary things. I rode my motorbike until I was 76 and only gave up because I couldn’t turn my head to the right easily," said Mr Matthews, "I’m rather hoping the pilot will do a loop the loop and a few barrel rolls.

"Caroline once bought me a ticket for a flight in a Tiger Moth and the pilot did a few acrobatics for me until I felt sick."

To sponsor Mr Matthews visit: justgiving.com/Geoffrey-Matthews1/