A grandmother who is scared of heights has said she will push herself out of a plane to keep a promise to her stillborn granddaughter.

Vicky Smart, of Laburnum Place, Sittingbourne, will skydive from Headcorn with friend Kerry Parnell who supported the family after the loss.

The pair will complete the challenge in June, after a promise Miss Smart made to her granddaughter, Isabella-Rose, who was stillborn last July.

Miss Smart, 49, pledged to raise enough money for a cold cot from Abigail’s Footsteps. The cots keep a baby’s body at 4C, meaning families can spend precious time if their children are stillborn.

She aims to raise £2,500 with her pal before Isabella-Rose’s birthday on Tuesday, July 16. They have more than £1,940.

Miss Smart said: “I’ll push myself to do it because of the promise I made.

“It’s not until you go through something like that, that you find out about these cots.

“It’s a refrigerated unit with a moses basket in the top and it allows you to stay with the baby for as long as you like. It gave my son Luke and his partner Lindsay a chance to make memories and help with the grieving process.

'I’ll push myself to do it because of the promise I made' - Vicky Smart

“We were privileged to use something like that and to spend more time with her.

“Not every hospital has them and so we’re paying for one to be sent up to St Thomas’ Hospital.”

The cold cot costs £2,050 and any extra money will go towards bereavement training for midwives and photography equipment so parents can have a picture of their children.

Before she was born, a scan discovered the youngster had several heart defects, including coarctation of the aorta - narrowing of the main artery supplying oxygen to blood through the heart.

Miss Parnell, is also scared of heights and the pair lost 2.5st with Slimming World to do the skydive. Visit www.tinyurl.com/VickySkydive to donate.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne.