A BRAVE Newport teenager jumped out of an aeroplane at 13,000 feet to raise money for a cancer charity which helped to care for her grandmother.

St Julian’s School pupil Jay Malpas, 16, did the 10-minute tandem-parachute above Swansea and raised more than £1,040 so far.

Jay has been fundraising for cancer charity St Anne’s Hospice since losing her grandmother, Yvonne George, in May last year at the age of 82.

“We were really close,” explained Jay, who is one of the youngest in her Year 12 sixth form group.

“She wasn’t there for very long but they looked after her.

“It was my idea to do the skydive, we went to the hospice to hand over some other money we had raised and I saw the poster,” said the sixth former, who is studying maths, geography, religious studies and psychology at school.

“I took the form home the same day. My parents didn’t really have a problem with it, they knew I was going to do it anyway.”

Earlier this year she raised more than £1,400 by organising a ceilidh in Newport and regularly helps out at barbecues and bag packing events to raise cash for the hospice, sometimes encouraging her friends to help out, too.

Jay, who some day hopes to work for the hospice, said of the skydive: “I loved it and would like to do it again. It was the fourth time we had tried to do it, it was put back three times because of bad weather. The staff there were all really nice, it wasn’t really that scary. It was really exciting.”

Anyone who wants to donate to Jay’s charity fundraising jump can call Ryan Owen at St Julian’s School on 01633 224490.