A POOLE businessman has overcome his fear of heights by leaping out of an aeroplane at 12,000ft and freefalling for 45 seconds.

Daniel Medhurst undertook his skydive for charity in memory of his brother Jamie, who died from a brain tumour at the age of 30 nearly six years ago.

So far he has raised £700 for the good cause.

After the jump was postponed once due to bad weather, Daniel was happy the skydive took place last Sunday at the Hinton Airfield in Oxfordshire.

“Everyone who went to the event did a tandem skydive apart from me, because I was daft enough to do an accelerated skydive.

“This entailed me jumping out of the plane on my own, freefalling, pulling the parachute and landing on my own,” explained Daniel.

“To make it worse, I’d never jumped out of a plane before and I don’t really like heights.

“Two instructors jumped out with me, but nobody was strapped to me.”

Daniel, who owns CDS Motor Services at Newtown Business Park, was inspired by watching contestants parachuting into the jungle for television’s I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here.

“It looked like fun. Jamie probably would have said I’m absolutely mad.

“My fiancee and kids watched. They think I’m mad as well.”

All the sponsorship money from the jump goes to the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (braintumourtrust.co.uk).

You can donate money by going to justgiving.com/Daniel-Medhurst.