A 75-year-old Shepway man is preparing to bungee jump off Victoria Falls in a bid to earn £10,000 for the hospice which looked after his beloved wife.

Ray and Mary Taylor had been married for 49 years when she succumbed to the effects of a devastating stroke.

A former nurse who worked at Maidstone Hospital and the Dorothy Lucy Centre, she passed away in 2014 aged 76.

Now Mr Taylor is preparing to plunge 111m, twice the height of Nelson’s Column, in aid of the Heart of Kent Hospice in Aylesford which cared for his wife during the final three months of her life.

The retired builder, of Shropshire Terrace, said: “Mary lost all use of the right-hand-side of her body. She lost her speech and from that day until the day she passed away I never heard her speak properly again. It was so upsetting. I looked after her for three years as you should do if you love your wife.

“But the first day I came to the hospice I cried because it was all so lovely. The care couldn’t have been better.

“Mary passed away there and from that day on I thought to myself I have got to do something for the hospice. It meant so so much to me and it meant so much to Mary.”

Mr Taylor is planning to bungee from a bridge at Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, in September. It is not the first time he has taken the plunge. On a holiday to Australia with his wife in 1993 he completed a 44m jump.

Friend Michael Lawrence, who helped to set up the online fundraising page, started with a generous £1,000 donation. Since then the money pledged has reached £6,500.

Mr Taylor added: “Everybody thinks I’m mad, even I do. It’s not a matter of can I do it though. I’m going to and nothing will stop me.

“I know when I actually get there it will be frightening.

“What I’ll be thinking about at the time I don’t know, but I like to think I’ll be hanging upside down, going ‘Mary, we did it.’”

To donate visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/RayTaylor. All money raised will go to the hospice in Hall Road as Mr Taylor is self-funding the trip.

Thanks went to all those who have donated so far.