IMAGINE taking to the sky in a micro-light aeroplane, seeing Canada's Rocky Mountains by helicopter and floating over the Ironbridge Gorge in a hot air balloon - and all at the age of 92.

In fact, Whitley woman Joyce Rumney held the British record for the oldest passenger and pilot duo in a light aircraft flight when she died peacefully last month at the age of 98.

Born in 1906, she spent her life based at the family home, Grimsditch Hall, Whitley, devoting her time to the Girl Guides and all aspects of village life. She was a member of the Parochial Church Council, Women's Institute, Conservation Association, Rose Queen organisation and Stockton Heath Country Dancers.

Lifelong friend Joyce Astill said: "I've known her since I joined her Brownie pack aged six.

"Myself and my husband have lived with her at the hall for the past 18 years.

"She was a formidable character who made the Girl Guides her career, because in those days daughters at the hall didn't work."

In 1926, Joyce co-founded the Whitley Brownie Pack and established, and became captain of, Whitley Guide Company, which originally met in a wooden hut lit and heated by oil lamps.

As Country Camp Advisor for Cheshire she took her Guide company on many adventure trips, preparation for her role of trainer to members of the Guide International Service, which sent teams to problem areas of Europe after the Second World War.

Despite her retirement from active Guiding, her sense of adventure did not fade. She travelled abroad for reunions with other Guide movements, set up Appleton Trefoil Guild, as well as coming face-to-face with black bears on a trip to Canada in 1996.

Joyce Rumney's work was acknowledged by an important accolade for exceptional service to Guiding, the Laurel Wreath Badge.

Mrs Astill added: "At her funeral the church was packed with many friends and representatives, who later gathered at Grimsditch Hall to celebrate her life and all agreed we shall never see her like again!"

As a tribute to Joyce's green fingers, her ashes will be scattered in the gardens of her home.