Joyce Watson, 74, has just completed her sixth charity event.
The thrill-seeking gran is showing no signs of slowing down.

TRACY WALKER spoke to her.




JOYCE Watson is getting that familiar feeling again.

Heart racing, adrenaline pumping, she takes a deep breath before she steps off the platform hundreds of feet above the ground.

It's her latest zipglide and she hurtles 160ft to the ground.

In 20 seconds it is all over and Joyce invigorated by the rush. But she is no energetic teenager flying through the air, she is a 74-year-old gran.

While a lot of septogenarians sit back and take it easy, Joyce is as active as ever.

"It's such a rush. I can never wait to get up there. It's brilliant, just wonderful," said the Peterlee resident.

"My friends think I'm crackers but my family are very supportive."
But Joyce admitted: "I've not really got a head for heights. I'm not too good at looking down. I still get the collywobbles.

"It's still great though."

Joyce has done three abseils and three zipglides for charity over the past eight years, her most recent being a zipglide in aid of the Teesside Hospice in Middlesbrough.

She has raised around £500 for the hospice, and around a further £1,000 for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) through her other events.

These include abseils from the roof of Lee House in Peterlee town centre in 2000, the Marks & Spencer building in Hartlepool and the Baltic art gallery in Gateshead in 2005.

She even got to help fly a four-seater plane as a reward for raising the most money – £400 – for her abseil from Lee House.

Joyce also did zipslides in a field near the Hardwick Hall Hotel, in Sedgefield, and from the pavilion at Sedgefield Racecourse.

She is mother to Ian, Neil and Karen Watson and Lynne Clark and step-grandmother to world kickboxing champion Luke Farrow.

She first got involved with the sky-soaring feats when she saw an appeal for volunteers in the Mail back in 2000.

Ever since then, organisers have actively sought her out to take part in the daring sponsored feats.

"If I see an appeal in the paper, I'm there," said Joyce.

"It's an honour to do all these things, especially to raise money for charity."

Joyce, who has eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, has always been active, ever since she was a young girl.

The former Wingate Infant, Junior and Girls School pupil, says her favourite subject at school was sport and she particularly enjoyed hockey, tennis, netball and rounders.

She was born to Norman and Sadie Watson on January 11, 1934, who Joyce says both shared a passion of dancing.

Joyce herself danced at ballroom venues all over the region, travelling as far as Billingham and Darlington, but had to give up her hobby around four years ago after some of the dancing halls closed and she could not get lifts.

"I love dancing to Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, but now it's just around the kitchen," she said sadly.

Joyce was married to the late Maurice Watson, a former RAF serviceman and GEC worker, who passed away 24 years ago, aged 59.

Her husband was also a generous fundraiser, and used his hobby of stand-up comedy in clubs to raise money for local causes.

The pair moved to Peterlee from Wingate around 50 years ago, after living as a couple with both sets of their parents.

"We lived with our parents after we got married. It was when council houses weren't easy to get. You had to wait for a council house or you could move to Peterlee, which was just a new town."

Joyce worked as a dispenser at Wylam's pharmacy in Peterlee until she was 65 and it was a year later when she saw the advert for dare-devil volunteers.

She said she doesn't know of any forthcoming similar events, but said: "I would love to do another one."

Joyce, who is a keen bowls player, said she preferred zipgliding to abseiling.

"You get more of an adrenaline rush," she said.

But can Joyce see herself still hurtling through the skies in 10 years time?

"Time will tell," she said.

"It's more the hanging around waiting for your time-slot that affects you than anything else. It can be very cold.

"But I will keep going as long as I can."

Visit www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk to find out how to donate.
www.justgiving.com/watjoy0191 to sponsor Joyce's latest zipglide.