A PATIENTS' champion turned daredevil has raised more than £1,000 for sick children.

Diane Weaver, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) officer for Blackburn and Darwen, did a freefall skydive from two miles up to raise money for Manchester Children's Hospitals.

Diane, from Clitheroe, said: "One dull day early in the new year I saw a poster about Manchester Sick Children's Hospital and its fund-raising efforts - one of which was a tandem freefall skydive.

"My immediate reaction was to think I could never do something like that and then I thought, 'Why not?'"

Diane went to Flookburgh airport in Cumbria and after 30 minutes training (and four hours waiting!) finally got to do her jump.

She said: "Once inside the very small aircraft I was strapped to an instructor while we took 20 minutes to climb up to an altitude of 10,000ft (two miles). Then all we had to do was drop!

"After freefalling for about 40 seconds, the parachute finally opened - much to my relief - and we did a tiptoe landing five minutes later."