A WINDOW cleaner ticked something off his bucket list to raise money for charity.

David Cocker, 49, and his son Jake Almond, 19, who live in Sycamore Avenue in Burnley did the charity skydive from 15,000ft to raise just short of £2000 for Pendleside Hospice.

The 49-year-old father, who works as a self-employed window cleaner in Burnley, said: “I have always wanted to skydive and with it coming up to my 50th birthday I decided it would be a good idea to do it now.

“We decided to do the jump for Pendleside as they do such wonderful things there and feel that the same thing is thought amongst the local community.

“My son and I trained for just 30 minutes before the dive - on how to position yourself when landing and how to fall out of a plane.

“Within an hour or two we went up. We paid £70 extra for the two of us to go higher, up to 15,000 feet, which is as high up as you can go in the United Kingdom."

Jake, who will be studying at University of Sheffield this September, and his father dived out of the plane for a minute each reaching up to speeds of 120 mph before they pulled the parachute.

The father-of-five added: “I was never nervous. Jake was a little bit apprehensive before but on the day he was absolutely fine.

“It was smiles all over at the end. It was an amazing feeling and it makes you want to go back up and do it all again. I’m so proud that I got to do with it with my son.

“For a 19-year-old lad to join his Dad and want to do it for a good cause makes me so happy.

“He said to me ‘I take my hat off to you Dad’ because of our achievement.

"Thanks to all our family and friends and my customers who are in the Sycamore area of Burnley and the Tarn Avenue estate in Clayton le Moors.”

Vikki Bassek, fundraiser at Pendleside Hopsice said: “Without people like David and Jake we wouldn’t be able to keep our doors open.”

To donate, visit www.pendleside.org.uk/fundraising