AGE and crippling arthritis have failed to deter one Oxford grandmother from taking on new challenges – she’s going paragliding at the age of 85.

Retired headmistress Gwynneth Pedler will soon be soaring into the clouds 4,000ft above the Sussex countryside, far above altitudes normally reached other light aircraft, using just natural lift from the wind and thermals.

The former headteacher of St Andrews’ Primary School, in Headington, Oxford, is not afraid of heights after being picked to take pride of place on a plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square in June last year, as part of a living work of art.

The project involved a different person being on the plinth for an hour each, round the clock for three months.

Mrs Pedler, who is now a disabilities campaigner, said: “When I was on the plinth last year someone asked me what I was going to do next year and I said paragliding. I “It just came out of my mouth and I don’t like to go back on my word. I want to show that disabled people can do anything they want to, more or less.

“I have mixed feelings about it, I’m a bit anxious but I’m looking forward to it.”

Mrs Pedler, of Hids Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, will take the tandem flight with an experienced pilot over the South Downs on Sunday, August 29.

She had planned to rise to the challenge on Sunday, but high winds put a stop to her plan.

Mother to Jennifer, 57, and Margaret, 53, Mrs Pedler has been in a wheelchair for six years suffering from arthritis and has been campaigning to improve facilities for disabled people.

She is chairman of the Oxford City Access Forum, which works to make the city accessible to the disabled.

She said: “It opened my eyes. Go around in a wheelchair for a month and you will realise things are not as easy.

“I think disabled people don’t always realise what is out there for them and what help there is. Very often difficulties can be overcome.

“I would say my quality of life, now I’m in a wheelchair, is just as good, but it’s altered.

“I now spend a lot more time trying to improve access and services for people with disabilities, so they can lead as much as a normal life as possible and I get great satisfaction from it.”