Taking the plunge

Caught mid-air is Sharon Hutchins, a secretary at home counties law firm Charles Lucas & Marshall, realising the ambition of a lifetime by jumping out of a plane attached not even to a parachute, but to a man with a parachute.

Obiter's experience of such jumps is that, given the location of the harness straps, it is less uncomfortable for a woman than a man when the parachute goes up, which probably explains why she is smiling while her male instructor seems to be grimacing.

To top it off, Ms Hutchins raised more than 1,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, her firm's chosen charity for the year.