An 82-year-old attempting to skydive on his wife’s birthday says she will be “up in the clouds” with him, and he’s not worried about the jump at all.

It is the fourth time Bernard Bibby has tried to jump 12,000ft from a plane at Headcorn Aerodrome but has been thwarted by the weather.

He wants to do it in memory of his beloved wife Celia, who passed away in January 2015 after months of treatment following a diagnosis of skin cancer.

“We came back from a holiday in Italy and she had what we thought was a splinter on her ankle,” the retiree from Sittingbourne explained.

“She didn’t smoke and she rarely drank. I think the whole thing evolved over two years.

“We were going to various hospitals, getting x-rays, minor operations and then back again to specialists.

“Then, of course, when the inevitable happens, you have this great big hole in your life.”

Over the years, Bernard believes he and Celia have raised and donated thousands of pounds to various charities – so much that he has lost count.

At one point, they took over an empty shop in The Forum Shopping Centre and set up a 28-day community radio station.

Since then, Bernard has tried to find weird and wacky ways of raising more money.

In September 2017, beauty therapists were set to wax his entire body at a club’s entertainment night, however, the event was cancelled by the venue hosts with less than 48 hours to go as they felt “customers weren’t comfortable watching that”.

He also regularly dresses up as Miss Orchid to raise awareness for the male cancer charity Orchid.

The 82-year-old’s latest effort is to skydive from 12,000ft.

On Sunday, June 22 – what would have been Celia’s birthday – Bernard hopes to complete the jump.

He said: “I’ve got to keep an eye out for her sitting on a cloud saying ‘silly old devil’ or ‘bloody idiot’.

“She was a London lass, very direct and polite, of course. She was a lot more sensible than me and was the brains of the family.

“I’m hoping that with her influence, the weather’s going to be good. I’m not worried about heights at all.

“If the wind is slightly in the wrong direction, you could end up in the Port Lympne Safari Park with the wild lions,” he joked.

However, this isn’t the first time he has tried to complete the challenge.

Last year, he was booked for jumps in September, October and November but each kept getting postponed due to poor weather conditions.

“Yes, it was a bit of a curse,” the former sound engineer and electrician added.

“I had to keep telling friends and family who were going to turn up at Headcorn to support me that it was off again.

“I just want to get it over and done with so that we can find something else to do.”

The Bexley-born retiree moved to Sittingbourne around 60 years ago with Celia, who worked as a consultant psychologist.

They were married at 21 and 20, and bought a new bungalow in Middletune Avenue for £2,000.

Bernard now lives in a flat at a retirement complex in Chatham and regularly attends ballet classes and his local gym to pass the time.

“I got to know my wife through ballroom dancing back in my youth,” he explained.

“I did a bit of tap dancing and some Latin – it was interesting. However, it’s so expensive to set up a class in a hall that nobody wants to do it.

“So now I do a two-hour ballet class a week to try and keep fit.”

Bernard is raising money for Cancer Research UK and so far £740 has been donated on his GoFundMe page, which has been running since last year.

If you’d like to contribute, click here.

The dad-of-two will be at the aerodrome from 1pm and is set to have a celebratory picnic afterwards.

Despite asking, he has been told he cannot wear his ballet costume for the skydive.

He said: “Unfortunately, you’ve got to wear conventional outfits.

“They won’t let you because it’s health and safety, and it could get in the way of the jump.”