THREE women from Monmouthshire Social Services took to the skies recently to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society and Parkinson’s UK.

Olive Dicks, Tracy Guest and Denise Quarrington have so far raised £8,000 between them for the two charities.

Olive, from Chepstow, said: “We’re all colleagues - Tracy and I live in Chepstow and work in Caldicot for social services and Denise is based in Abergavenny. My husband Fred lives with Alzheimer’s and so does Denise’s mum. Tracy’s brother has Parkinson’s and he took a turn for the worse at the beginning of the year, so we all decided to take action.

“We decided we needed to do something crazy and it was Tracy’s idea to do the wing walk. They’re both younger than me: I’m 68 with four grandchildren and nine grandchildren and there I am doing a wing walk, but I thought ‘well why not?’

“I absolutely enjoyed it. We went to Cirencester for it and each had about 15 minutes in the air. You’re strapped in , sort of leaning back and the aircraft swooped low over the ground so that we could wave to friends and family.Tracey, who is also a grandmother, even did a double loop the loop.

“We’ve held events to raise money too. We raised £1,500 at Burnt Barn Club in Bulwark and my son-in-law Keith Morgan had his chest waxed. My grandson is over from Australia for a year and had his long hair shaved off.

Tracy added: “We also donated £500 to an art and music class held at Chepstow Hospital for people with Alzheimers.”

To donate to Olive’s Alzheimer’s Society page, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/olive-ray-dicks or to support Tracy’s Parkinson’s UK page, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tracy-guest1.