A new start after 60: ‘I learned to skydive. The door opens, the wind comes through – and vroom, you’re away!’

Mercy Baggs above the clouds on her tandem jump last March. Photograph: Simon Donnelly

Mercy Baggs is contemplating her future. “Should I live to 95, I’ll do another parachute jump,” she says. She first jumped when she was 77, to commemorate her stint as mayor of the Wiltshire town of Calne. Then she jumped again last March, a day before her 90th birthday, to raise funds for Wiltshire air ambulance.

“It’s the thrill of it,’ she says. “You go up, and then that door opens and the wind starts to come through. You are strapped to this guy and he slides you out. Suddenly there’s a touch on your head, and vroom, you’re away. You free-fall. You free-fall for a long time.”