Bedingfield mum plans to freefall down to Everest

by Abi Thomas and NZPA
A former Northlander and mother of two international pop stars is about to leap out of a plane above the world's highest mountain.
Molly Bedingfield, mother of siblings Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield, is part of an international group of 32 amateur and professional skydivers who have paid $35,000 each for the challenge to skydive above Mt Everest this week, raising money for children's charities in Asia.
The Bedingfields have made regular trips in recent years to Northland for holidays, despite now living in the United Kingdom.
Another New Zealander, veteran skydiver Wendy Smith, was elated to have been one of three to jump from a record height of almost 9000m (29,500 feet) above the world's tallest peak.
While Smith, Canadian Neil Jones and Holly Budge from Britain jumped from a record height, others in the team are tackling the lower, but still formidable, altitude of 5500m (18,000 feet).
The record-breaking trio took 10 minutes to land at Syangboche, the world's highest drop zone at 3761m.
They freefell for one minute, at speeds of up to 290km/h in temperatures of -40C, before their parachutes opened and floated them back to their base camp.
Due to the thin air, their parachutes were three times the size of regular ones, and the jumpers used oxygen tanks strapped to their waists.
They also wore neoprene undersuits and thermal gear to keep out the freezing temperatures as they leapt out of the plane at 8940m.
The group have spent a week at the base camp in order to acclimatise to the altitude.
Among the group is a 72-year-old scientist, a Red Devils freefall member, a former soldier and Bedingfield .
Somerset-based climber Nigel Gifford, who himself scaled Everest the traditional way in 1976, has spent two years planning the jumps.
"This has never been done before. I get a tingle down my spine every time I think about it," he said.
Daniel Bedingfield made headlines in January 2004 when he rolled the four-wheel-drive vehicle he was driving on Kauri Mountain Rd at Whangarei Heads, on the way back from a Youth for Christ camp.
He received fractures to the second and third vertebra of his neck, and stayed in New Zealand to recover.
He was also charged with careless use of a motor vehicle, but the charge was later dropped after he did a driver retraining course in the United States.
Bedingfield received Best Male Artist at Britain's top music awards - The Brits - less than three months after his accident.
He later wrote a song about his near-death experience in Northland entitled I'm Not Dead - I'm Alive.