A former paratrooper who battled through a serious illness to raise thousands of pounds for charity by tackling one final parachute jump has died.

Despite suffering from motor neurone disease (MND), a terminal illness which left him unable to speak or eat and struggling to breathe, Robert Applegarth decided to take on the challenge of a 12,000 ft freefall in aid of Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in July this year.

While Robert added one final parachute jump to a list of hundreds he undertook as a gunner in the Parachute Regiment and the Territorial Army, his 17-year-old daughter Katie tackled her first jump alongside her father.

Robert’s brother Michael Applegarth, 49, from Southwood, another ex-Para, also took part in the fundraising jump. Between them, the three raised more than £8,000 for the hospice and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Robert’s second wife Debbie, a nurse, said that Robert had amazed doctors at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London who treated him, when he had asked for permission for the jump.

The consultant who finally gave him the green light for the feat told him that he had never heard of an MND patient doing anything like a parachute jump, calling him a “one in a million” patient.

“They all thought he was bonkers,” Debbie said. “They had never had anyone ask anything like it before.”

Although Robert was determined to do the final jump with his brother and daughter, the experience took a lot out of him.

“He did say never again,” Debbie said. “It was almost too much for him really, but he wanted to do his last jump, and he did it."