Sky diving daredevil Nancy Jones nearly plummeted to disaster when her parachute became tangled on her first jump.

Nancy was making a charity tandem jump when her instructor was forced to jettison the main parachute at 7,000 feet because it had twisted.

The terrified 50-year-old plunged through the air like a stone for several thousand feet before the reserve opened.

"I can't tell you how scared I was, it was off the scale," she said.

"It all happened so quickly, but afterwards I couldn't even stand up because my legs had turned to jelly.

"I've still got a headache from the adrenaline rush but when you come that close to dying, it opens your eyes.

"I feel like I've got another chance to do all the things I want to do."

Nancy was one of an intrepid bunch of fundraisers from Cinderford jumping at an airfield at South Cerney when the drama unfolded.

Ironically, Nancy was dubbed danger woman because the word had been scrawled on her harness.

At first she thought everything had gone to plan because she felt the main chute stall her descent, but then she noticed her instructor kicking.

"I couldn't look up but he told me to keep kicking my leg out because we had a twist in the chute," she said.

"I was kicking for dear life when he said 'get yourself in the exit position, we are going for another ride'.

"I did as he said and then we started dropping through the air like a brick.

"The terminal velocity was 170mph instead of 120mph and I think the reserve opened at about 3,000ft."

Afterwards experienced para- chutists told her they had never opened their reserves in hundreds of jumps and the chances of a malfunction are 0.1 per cent.

Traumatised Nancy has been mentally reliving the terrifying moment since May 13 but is now joking that she had two jumps for the price of one.

Ex-para Brian Trigg, 73, was on his 66th jump when he saw the drama unfold from above.

"I thought 'Good God' who's that," he said. "When I got down Nancy told me it was her. We had swapped instructors at the last minute so it should have been me,"

Nancy's husband Geoff was watching from the ground.

"He turned round and when he turned back I wasn't there and the main canopy was floating to the ground," she said.

"That was the first and last. From now on I'll be keeping my feet firmly on the ground,"

The trio were raising money to fund research into the degenerative brain disease Progressive Supra- nuclear Palsy which Brian's wife Carol suffers from.