Grandmother of two, Rhonda Davis, 75, jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet on Wednesday to raise money for the hospital that saved her life.

Rhonda, of High Street, Bushey, was suffering from intense chest pains and had a blockage in one of the main blood vessels last year. In Feburary this year, she had a seven hour heart operation at Royal Brompton Hospital.

She said: "Since my amazing heart operation, I’ve been determined to give something back to the hospital that saved my life too.

"When I came round after surgery, the surgeon came over and said to me 'you have the heart of a 25-year-old now', so I jokingly replied, 'does that mean I can go bungee-jumping or skydiving' and that is the inspiration behind this skydive."

After the skydive, the flying grandmother, who also has two metal knees, described the experience as "awesome".

She said: "It was unbelievable. We were floating above the clouds, it was freezing when we went through them, but we could see the evening sunset and it was a beautiful golden hue.

"And my instructor, Mike Rust, was absolutely fantastic."

Rhonda did the skydive with her friend, swimming international, Sharron Davies. Sharron described her friend on Twitter as an amazing young lady and she is proud to know her. 

Rhonda has rasied aprroxing £4,000 for the Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital's Charity's Hybrid Theatre Appeal and more money is still coming in.

She added: "My daughter sadly passed away five years ago and she said to me that there are so many things that she had wanted to do but now won't. Her death taught me that life is so precious and you really have to live for the day.

"I also wanted to prove to my grandchildren that I’m no ordinary grandma. Most grandma's my age are expected to sit knitting or bakinig cakes and I've just thrown out that rule book. I wanted to give my grandchildren memories that they won't forget and show you can do anything, if you really want to."