She may not have a head for heights, but that is not stopping Allison Bucknell from plummeting thousands of feet for charity.

The Wiltshire councillor, who lives in Royal Wootton Bassett, will be tandem skydiving on Saturday in a bid to help raise thousands of pounds for the Royal British Legion.

Coun Bucknell (Con, Lyneham) signed up for the challenge, in which three council officers are also taking part, after another councillor dropped out due to health issues.

“Sadly the elected member was told by his doctor he wouldn’t be allowed to do it on health grounds and I happened to be in the room when they were talking about it,” she said.

“For some reason I heard myself offering to take his place. I don’t like heights but if you don’t put yourself outside your comfort zone from time to time life is pretty boring. It is in aid of a good cause, particularly with it being the Royal British Legion.

“With our Wootton Bassett connection as well I thought it was appropriate to do my bit.”

Coun Bucknell will be joined by Wiltshire Council employees Michael Hudson, financial director, Julian Ingram, interim head of procurement, and Mike Swabey, strategic project manager.

They are due to board the aircraft on Saturday morning after their briefing at Old Sarum airfield near Amesbury, where they will climb to 13,000ft.

They are aiming to raise a total of £10,000 between them.

“At the end of the day there have been hundreds of thousands of people who have parachuted out of planes into enemy territory because that is what they had to do to protect their country. I am just doing this for fun to raise money for charity,” said Coun Bucknell.

“This is nothing, It’s pretty tame compared to what they went through. It is a way of giving something back.”

The Royal British Legion is the nation’s leading armed forces charity, providing care and support to all members of the British armed forces past and present and their families.

To sponsor them visit www.just giving.com/CharityTandemJump