A CARDIGAN pensioner who undertook a tandem parachute jump would love to take to the skies again after raising £3,500.

Seventy-four-year-old retired farmer Keith Whitehead, from Blaenporth, plummeted 12,000 feet at Swansea Airport to help raise money for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).

Keith – dubbed ‘the flying farmer’ - undertook the sponsored sky dive along with Dave Burrows and John Kubale, from Sheffield and London respectively, to raise funds for the charity as a way of saying thank you for the help it gave to him when he needed it.

“It was a fantastic feeling and I would definitely love to do it again,” said Keith, with his feet firmly back on terra firma.

“When we got up there I was a bit nervous and I thought I was jumping out last but the other two said ‘no, you’re going first!’

“You are a bit unsure and it’s a bit hairy at first when you are sat there with your legs dangling out of the plane and then you just slide out.

“You hit the turbulence and you don’t know where anything is. Then suddenly everything’s calm and you slowly float down. It was a very enjoyable experience.”

Keith and wife Jill volunteer for RABI’s Ceredigion committee and help raise funds after receiving help from the charity.

“I was really pleased to raise £3,500 and I would just like to thank the other two lads and all the people in the Cardigan area who supported me. Everyone was so generous,” said Keith.

And it seems that Keith has certainly got a taste for the high life with talk now of a zip wire challenge in north Wales.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” added Keith.

The RABI offer financial support to farming people in hardship of all ages. Its confidential Freephone helpline is available on 0808 281 9490.