TWO close friends from Neyland took a leap of faith last month and completed a charity skydive.

Paul Wheeler, 43, and Tina Goodman, 42 leapt 13,000 feet from an aeroplane on May 17 to raise money for a cause close to their hearts, the HOPE MS therapy centre in Honeyborough.

Paul was diagnosed with MS in September 2012, and is a regular visitor to the centre.

He said: “I've been using it mainly just to meet up with people who know exactly how I’m feeling.

“I've also had physiotherapy many times, which has made such an improvement to not only my quality of life, but to my understanding and ability to deal with MS.”

Tina, who has been unwell for some time, has been cleared from having MS, but still wanted to do something to support the cause.

She said: “When Paul said he was going to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane (even though he is scared of heights) I offered to join him.”

Paul and Tina both jumped in tandem with instructors.

After his feet were firmly on the ground, Paul said the experience was an amazing rush.

“For someone who is scared of heights and won’t even use a stepladder, it was extremely scary going up in the plane, but when you leave it and start free-falling you just feel like you're floating.

“You're so high that it doesn't even register as being high. In fact it wasn't until I was about 50 feet from the ground that I got scared.

“It's something I would encourage everyone to try at least once. Do it for charity - in fact do it for HOPE.”

Between them Paul and Tina have raised more than £1,000 for HOPE, with donations still coming in. To make a donation visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/PaulWheeler40