AT 85 MOST people would be happy to celebrate their birthday quietly with a few relatives and friends.

But not “Action Gran” Shirley Price. She is planning to mark her 85th birthday by leaping 4,000ft off Mont Blanc in the French Alps.

Her 15 to 30 minute “flight” in tandem with a paragliding expert from a Chamonix-based school will take place on Christmas Eve.

She is raising funds for the East Sussex Association of Blind and Partially Sighted People where she is a vice patron, chairwoman of the charity’s Friends and chairwoman of the Tuesday Club which organises social events for members.

Shirley, who lives at Bodle Street Green, near Hailsham, is known locally as “Shirl the Whirl”.