Write Out Loud regular John Coopey makes a habit of fitting new words to popular songs and blogging them on this site, accompanying himself on the guitar. His latest is ‘I’m Abseiling’ – and that’s exactly what he’s doing, on Sunday 22 May, 80 metres down a tower block in Leeds, to raise money for the Red Cross.

John, aged 64, said: “My daughter Sam did a parachute jump a few weeks ago and I was envious (and scared) and thought that this was something we could do together. It's off the CLV building in Leeds. It's 82 metres high which doesn't sound a lot to anyone brought up on feet and inches, but in old money it's a Big Bugger.”

He added: “Truth to tell, it's more of an old man thing, like riding a big motorbike. Basically, it's my ponytail.”

John lives in Chapel Haddlesey, near Selby, North Yorkshire, and is a former mining manager and management consultant. He recently retired as verger at Selby abbey.

He said of his charity, the British Red Cross: “They respond to crises and disasters in the UK and overseas, including: prolonged hospitalisation, sudden immobility (they loan wheelchairs), house fires, extreme weather, floods, earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, famine and war. In the last 12 months they have been responding to: the war in Syria, the European refugee crisis, the Nepal earthquake, and close to home the Christmas floods in the north of England – as well as supporting vulnerable people at home on a day to day basis.”

You can contribute to John's Red Cross money-raising here