TWO sisters and their friend will jump 15,000 feet from an aeroplane to fund a mercy mission for the seriously ill in Africa.

Gaynor Pilkington, 34, of Sniddle Hill Lane, Darwen, is raising money for a new alternative health clinic in Ethiopia and has made an appeal for donations.

The qualified homeopath will spend two years training doctors and treating the poor, the disabled, children and those suffering from life threatening diseases like polio. The mission is in conjunction with Frontline Homeopathy, a London-based registered charity helping to bring homeopathic treatment to people across the globe.

Gaynor has to raise £10,000-£15,000 and will make the parachute jump with her sister Charlotte, 31, and friend Joanne Reed, 31, at the North West Jump Centre in Grange-over-Sands on September 28 or 29. She is making the trip with another qualified homeopath from Cambridgeshire and they have split the fund-raising responsibilities between them.

She said: "I recently qualified after studying for a degree in homeopathy at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and decided I wanted to do something to help people straight away. Homeopathy uses natural remedies to cure illness and disease and we'll be using these skills to help people and to set a low-cost solution that will outlast our trip.

"There are a lot of diseases over there which we don't think about because they are curable here, like polio, diarrhoea or even just fevers and high temperatures. Without this they would have to walk for days to get any sort of treatment."

Anyone wishing to make a donation should telephone Gaynor on 07720 531891.