MOVING house and starting a new job may be enough of a challenge for some - but one 30-year-old North Yorkshire mother faces an additional challenge this weekend.

The new home in Brompton, near Northallerton, is now just about sorted out and the uncertainties loom over a new post with the Guidance Enterprises Group IT department from Monday.

But, before that, Ann Mackintosh will leap from 3,200ft by parachute, raising money for charity on the way down.

"I've no idea why I'm doing it," she said. "It's just something I've always fancied, and now the opportunity is there to do it for a good cause.''

All the money raised will go towards the costs of bringing another group of children from Chernobyl for a month in Yorkshire - away from the area still contaminated by the nuclear disaster 15 years ago.

Fireman husband Sandy has paid for the jump at Topcliffe tomorrow, which Mrs Mackintosh hopes will raise about £400.

"Things have just been so hectic I haven't had time to think about it much, so I'm not nervous yet. Perhaps, when I get to Topcliffe, what I'm about to do may sink in," she said.

She and her husband have been treasurers of the Wensleydale Chernobyl Children's Project for the past 12 months and hope to host two of a party of eight children planning to visit England next summer.