DAREDEVIL pensioner Robbie Seddon is preparing to make his first ever parachute jump – at the age of 80.

Robbie, from Rhostyllen, will pass his birthday milestone on May 24. Six days later he will leap out of a plane high above the Lancashire countryside to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

He said: “I’ve raised lots of funds for a variety of good causes over the years, but I have never done anything like this before. It will be a tandem jump.

“It is something I’m certainly looking forward to. It will be very exciting.

“I thought that I would raise money this time through parachuting because it was such a different thing to do.” Robbie has chosen to help Alder Hey because two of his grandchildren, Holly, aged 14 and four-year-old Ethan have been patients there.
Holly is being treated for a muscle wasting disease and is in remission.

When Ethan was 18 months, old he needed an operation after his lungs became severely congested. He made a full recovery.

Robbie says he believes in always keeping busy and never resting on his laurels.

He served in the Royal Air Force during his national service between 1948-50 but never went as far as doing a parachute jump.

He has spent all his working life in the hotel and hospitality industry, both in the UK and France. Opera singing legend, the late Luciano Pavarotti, was among the many people he looked after.

Robbie is still a highly popular master of ceremonies for wedding receptions at the Wynnstay Hotel in Ruabon.