A BRAVE veteran leapt into action to raise hundreds of pounds for charity.

Jim Towns, of Tudhoe Colliery, completed a 10,000ft parachute jump in aid of the Alzheimer's Society.

The 76-year-old answered an appeal in the monthly newsletter of the Durham Light Infantry Association's Durham branch to take part in a sponsored tandem jump.

Mr Towns, who served with the Army for 12 years, was the only member of the branch to volunteer.

He said: "I was pleased to do it, I felt a mixture of excitement, fear and pride.

"We waited around for nearly ten hours at Peterlee Parachute Centre for the weather to be right.

"I had to watch others jump before I went with an instructor, we dropped at about 120mph and I just kept waiting for the parachute to open and to reach the ground."

Cheering Mr Towns on from the ground were his wife, Betty, and family from Tudhoe Village and Cardiff.

He said: "The important thing was that I can help people, especially older people, by raising £511 for the society."

The jump was not the first moment in the limelight for Mr Towns.

He has played the cornet in brass bands since he was a boy and enjoyed a professional boxing career, using the name Jimmy Ford, winning, among other prizes, a certificate of merit from Boxing News in 1952.