Red Arrows flights sold for £1.5m

A seat in each of the display aircraft was eventually auctioned

The wife of a multi-millionaire ex-miner has paid £1.5m to charity for a chance to fly with the Red Arrows.

Julie Heselden, whose husband Jimi founded defence equipment group HESCO Bastion, placed the winning bid for nine seats on the display team.

It was the star lot at a ball organised by Help for Heroes, a charity which supports injured service personnel.

This was the first time seats with the Lincolnshire-based RAF display team had been put up for auction.

Originally just one seat with the Red Arrows was to be auctioned but on the night that was increased to nine - one in each of the display aircraft.

A charity spokesman said the bidding went "beyond my wildest dreams" and the money would be used wisely.

Former Army officer George Hewson, chairman of the Heroes' Ball committee, said: "I woke up this morning and still couldn't believe it.

"We had hoped to raise over £250,000 from the ball but thanks to our sponsors HESCO Bastion and everyone who attended and dug deep into their pockets we raised around £1.65 million.

"A fantastic achievement for everyone involved. The Red Arrows bidding went beyond my wildest dreams."

Jimi Heselden had worked as a miner before losing his job in a wave of redundancies in the 1980s.

But the founder of the Leeds-based company, HESCO, went from strength-to-strength as the firm firstly worked on sand blasting buildings and metal structures.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the firm diversified into manufacturing the bastion wire cages which made Mr Heselden a multi-millionaire.

From the company's Cross Green industrial estate base the metal baskets have been used across the globe for military defence work and other projects.

Mr Heselden is estimated to be worth £205m and was awarded an OBE in 2006