A news editor braved cold temperatures and bitter winds to leap out of a plane for charity.

Helen Backway, from the south-east News Shopper series, jumped out at 10,000ft over Kent as she continues to raise hundreds of pounds for a local hospice project.

But the 28-year-old, who confessed to being scared of roller coasters, said she was far from becoming an adrenaline junkie.

"I think the worse bit is the initial feeling when you jump out of the plane," she told holdthefrontpage.

"There's a tiny parachute that kicks in and slows you down a little.

"But after that I thought 'Wow, this is amazing'.

"You can see for miles – it was a really cold day but perfect conditions.

"We had about 45 seconds freefall, that bit is over quite quickly, and then you're only in the parachute for about five minutes."

The tandem skydive is supporting a campaign to raise £6.5m by children's hospice Demelza House.

Since it was launched in March, £3m has been raised towards building a new hospice in Eltham, near Greenwich, with the Newsquest title lending its backing to the campaign in the autumn.

The hair-raising day started early as Helen and her fellow jumpers, including her boyfriend, were at the Headcorn Aerodrome near Maidstone at 7.30am on Saturday.

Despite being there in good time and raring to go, the news editor had to endure an agonising five-hour wait until she was called up to board the plane.

She added: "There's lots of sitting around and the parachute club were doing some solo jumps.

"The longer it went on I was thinking 'I'm getting bored now'. "There was about half an hour between being called up and actually doing the jump.

"Eight of us squashed in together in the plane and getting up to 10,000ft felt like a long time. And I was last to jump so I could see everybody else going out."

Helen has so far collected £730 towards her £1,000 fund-raising target.

"I don't know if that's slightly ambitious," she added.

"But I'm really pleased with how much I have raised already.

"It's a massive 'thank you' to everyone who has sponsored me.

"I would also recommend skydiving to anyone – it's really good fun."

To sponsor Helen visit her online fund-raising page. A video of her skydive can be seen at the News Shopper website.

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