Friends gather in Staffordshire to watch Olympian's space flight

Friends of astronaut Jon Goodwin gathered at a church in Staffordshire to watch his space flight.

of the North Staffordshire Parkinson's Group watched him take off for the edge of space on the Virgin Galactic rocket plane.

The 80-year-old Olympian, who has Parkinson's, said he had feared his disease would stop him travelling.

"He may have Parkinson's but Parkinson's doesn't have him," friend Ana Palazon said.

"His attitude towards life is that he keeps going, he keeps having objectives, personal objectives, and he's such a physically active and daring person."

Mr Goodwin, a champion canoeist, ed Keisha Schahaff and Ana Mayers - the first mother-daughter duo to travel to the edge of space - on the trip where they saw Earth from an altitude of around 85km (52 miles).

Ms Palazon said there was "big clapping" when the rocket was let go by the mothership, and that people cheered and cried when Mr Goodwin appeared on screen.

Another friend to watch the flight in the church in Newcastle-under-Lyme was Lorraine Vernon who said seeing him jet off was "amazing".

"We all love him so much here in our group... He's wonderful. He gives everybody inspiration and he tries to encourage them to do things," she said.

"He's kept [having a ticket] to himself for a while.

"Then all of a sudden he went missing and we said: 'Where have you been":[]}