AS HER year of office as Mayor of Maidstone drew to a close, Cllr Paulina Stockell gave her "last drop" of energy for Demelza House Children's Hospice on Saturday.

The Mayor was one of 68 volunteers who abseiled down the side of the Chequers Centre car park tower in Maidstone in a charity fund-raiser organised by the Riverside Rotary Club of Maidstone.

It was the "first and last" abseil for the Mayor, who made the 110ft drop in the company of her former PA, Lynn Collier, under the watchful guidance of experts from the Mile End Climbing Wall in London.

The Mayor made her leap into the unknown with two teddy bears pinned to her back - gifts for her two grand-daughters Hannah and Sophie Jones, aged three, who were on hand to watch their gran's antics.

Others to make the descent included Neil Turrell, headmaster of Maidstone Grammar School, while Rotary Club President Terry Shead at 66 was the oldest to go over the top, and his grandson Lewis Shead - at 10 - was the youngest.

The event brought in more than £12,000 to be divided between Demelza House, the Kent Air Ambulance and the Kent Association For The Blind.