"ANTICIPATION, nausea, dizziness and blackouts" - that's parachuting in five words, according to the Mercury's Jo Middleton who completed a jump for charity this week.

The 28-year-old mum-of-two, who works as an editorial assistant for the Mercury, conquered a fear of heights to jump from 10,000ft and raise £500 for mental health charity Mind.

But not quite everything went to plan for brave Jo, who revealed that she felt "very sick indeed" during the jump, and even passed out before touching down.

However, with feet planted firmly back on terra firma, and the feeling of sickness eventually, passing, she was able to share her account of the experience.

She said: "I wasn't at all scared or anything in my head, but my body didn't really agree. Going up in the plane was fun, although it was held together with a lot of black tape and they had a rolled up towel to wedge close the flimsy door.

"When they opened the door for us to jump it did suddenly hit me that I actually had to jump out into the sky, but it was exciting - it seemed much further up than I imagined it was going to.

"The jump out and the freefall was amazing. I knew we were going really fast but at the same time it felt like we were just hanging there.

"Then the parachute opened and that was really odd because suddenly it felt like we had stopped completely and everything went silent because the noise of the wind had gone.

"I had a go at steering from side to side and all was fine. Then the guy on my back said he'd show me what a real spin was like and it all started to go a bit wrong. I felt VERY sick indeed!

"He was counting down - 3,000 feet, 2,000 feet - and all I could think was 'please don't let me be sick in mid air all over this man's face'.

"He got to 1,000 feet and I started to feel very strange indeed. Next thing I know we are on the ground and I am being helped to my feet by a rather concerned looking group of strangers!

"So, to summarise - anticipation, nausea, dizzyness, blackouts, coming round to find yourself lying on the floor with a strange man looking down on you telling you it's all over. Bit like a night out with the Mercury really."