SEVENTY-one-year-old Mike Ash - already a much-loved larger-than-life character to his family – flew to legendary status when he did his “Biggles” skydive from 13,000 feet for the Freddie Farmer Foundation last Wednesday (July 25).

Watched by 30 friends and relatives, including five of his six grandchildren, Mike made the jump at the Headcorn Airfield in Kent and called it a “fantastic experience”.

Publisher Mike said: “I loved it all, the build-up, everything. People were saying ‘Are you nervous?’ and I said “no, I wasn’t nervous, it was exciting.”

“My daughters and sons-in-law were there as well as the grandchildren, so we just enjoyed the whole day with Freddie, his mum Deanne, granddad Danny, and Nanny Sheila.

“The man who took me up was Clem Quinn, who had done more than 9,000 jumps. It was a very crowded plane, I think there were about 14 of us. He asked me to watch for the red light, then it was time to tuck my legs back, bring my head back, arch my body then whoosh!  I was triple somersaulting through the air. 

“You are whisked back up then the parachute starts to take effect. Then I was able to do a bit of steering by pulling down hard on the right hand side to see all the local landmarks.”

All Mike’s supporters waved to the big green parachute at about 2,000 feet and as he landed they formed on two sides and sang the tune from the Dambusters.

“It was very emotional,” said Mike, “and an incredible experience, just wonderful.

“My daughter Georgina said that the two freefallers who left the aircraft before me did it as I was starting one of my jokes!”

Mike, who lives in Blackheath with wife Jackie, is a cousin to eight-year-old Freddie Farmer’s granddad, Danny Catchesides. He hopes his skydive will raise £10,000 for the charity that was started last year to raise £250,000 for a specialised physiotherapist centre in SE London.

Freddie, who lives in Eltham, was born at 28 weeks with cerebral palsy, weighing just 2lbs 12oz. His mother, who did the same skydive last year, said: “Mike is an amazing man who didn’t think for a second about making the dive. He was already a wonderful member of our family but this will go down in our family’s history.”

TO SPONSOR MIKE, VISIT http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MichaelAsh .