A great grandmother who undertook a skydive last year to raise money for a meningitis charity following a family tragedy has raised more than £2,000 for the cause.

And a Melksham man who recently faced his fear of heights has also raised £1,240 for charity from another jump.

Jill Reynolds spent her 70th birthday on October 31 last year falling through the skies over Wroughton Airfield near Swindon, after being sponsored by her family and friends.

Mrs Reynolds of Seymour Road in Trowbridge did the tandem skydive in memory of her great-granddaughter Keeley Eva Mason, who died on August 13 from meningitis, aged nine weeks.

Baby Keeley contracted a deadly form of meningitis as her mother Nadia Skinner, 21, had been unknowingly carrying the bacterial infection Group B Streptococcus (GBS).

This was passed on to Keeley during the birth, causing her to develop GBS meningitis hours later.

Miss Skinner and partner Tim Mason, 25, were among family members watching Mrs Reynolds do the jump.

Mrs Reynolds said: “I want to thank everyone who sponsored me and supported me doing the jump. I loved it and I would do it again definitely.

“I really enjoyed it and I am very grateful to everyone for helping raise this money. Nadia and Tim are also thrilled about me raising this amount and being able to raise awareness for Group B Streptococcus.”

Mrs Reynolds paid for the parachute jump out of her own pocket, meaning the £2,180 she raised will go straight to Meningitis UK.

Meanwhile, Michael Jenkins, 23, from Bolwell Place, Melksham, and his friend Mike Burne, 24, from Chippenham, leapt 10,000ft during their tandem parachute jumps at Sarum Airfield in Salisbury on January 30.

The friends, who work at IT Focus in Bath, decided to do the fundraiser for Bath Cats and Dogs Home, as Mr Jenkins volunteers there in his spare time.

Mr Burne said: “We were told that we would be jumping about 11am but at just gone 10am they told us to suit up as we were jumping in 10 minutes. That’s when the nerves took over. It was a really clear sky and the views were amazing, we could actually see the Isle of Wight.”

The pair had nine companies sponsor them and are still collecting donations through www.justgiving.com/the2mikes-skydive.