Watch the moment an 80-year-old great grandmother does a skydive

A retired Castleford nurse and great grandmother has jumped out of a plane to raise money for charity.
Jane Bull and daughter JayneJane Bull and daughter Jayne
Jane Bull and daughter Jayne

Jane Bull, 80, took the plunge to raise money for a dementia charity.

She had previously donated one of her kidneys to a complete stranger.Daughter Jayne Hookham said: "She’s very pleased she achieved this - but has no wish to repeat it! Although her next target is doing a wing walk when she’s 90!

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"I’m pretty sure she will pull this off also. We are all super proud of her."

Jane spent 44 years working as a nurse, including 11 years in occupational health at Rowntree Mackintosh in Castleford and Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.

She has already abseiled 150ft down the former Leeds College of Technology when she turned 60 to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

She said: “That was brilliant. I just like doing challenges, doing something exciting. I don’t want to be retired and staring into space, you have got to do something.”

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On the significance of the cause, she said: “My father had dementia for a few years as well as his sister, and I’m at the age quite a few of my friends have been affected.

“You wouldn’t let a dog suffer like that. You lose the person long before they die.

“It is wicked and it hits people even in their 50s so let’s find a cure for it.”

Jane, who now lives in Garforth, donated her kidney the other year after reading about it online.

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She felt it was something she could afford to do and wanted to help.

She said: “It is less painful than having a tooth out.

“It was very easy and it was painless, I was home two days later. I haven’t’ felt any difference whatsoever.”

And she was able to make contact with the person she helped.

She said: “I got a lovely letter from man who got the kidney via the team at St James’ Hospital –it has changed his life completely.

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“I was apologetic because it is an 80 year old kidney but the doctors said there’s another 20 years in it.

“It felt absolutely wonderful. I wrote back via the hospital and they posted it to him.

“He said he was 74 and had kidney problems from being seven. But since the transplant he was able to walk the dog, do the garden and join in life again. He was made up.”

You can donate to the cause here.