JUMPING out of a plane, holding a tarantula and eating sprouts.

These are just some of the tasks a father-of-four has chosen to tackle in an unusual fundraising mission.

Matt Boorman decided to take on 40 challenges ranging from the terrifying to the bizarre in the year leading up to his 40th birthday.

Mr Boorman started The Midlife Crisis Challenge on September 20, 2011, in support of the Advance Centre – the Institute For The Scotson Technique – and a special girl called Lea Clarke.

Lea, nine, is the daughter of Mr Boorman’s best friend, Jon Clarke. She suffers with an undiagnosed condition which has left her enduring up to 120 fits a day.

“I wanted to do something that was more than just raising money,” Mr Boorman said. “I wanted people to sit up and take notice and see exactly what the charity is too.”

The ideas for the challenges came from a combination of suggestions from friends and things Matt really hated – such as sprouts.

“Eating a sprout a day is probably not a big deal to some people, but I can’t eat one without gagging – it’s been disgusting.

“It’s been tough but I’ll get them all done – they’re not going to beat me.”

One of the challenges is to get in the Guinness Book of Records and he has prepared three possible attempts.

He will either attempt to skip 5km in less than the current record of 31 minutes, beat the current record of doing 61 star jumps in a minute or break vinyl records in half in a minute, with 62 to beat.

Matt, who now lives in Warwick but is formerly of Bildeston, near Hadleigh, is filming his challenges.

He has had to plan his challenges carefully as some could only be completed at certain times of year – and everything had to fit around his full-time job as a development underwriter.

The year was made even more testing with the arrival of his new baby, Harrison, just over a month ago.

Matt has four children – Ellen, 16, Sadie, 14, Luca, two, and Harrison – and said they and his partner Larisa have been very supportive. To support Matt or follow his challenge, got to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/midlifecrisischallenge