Say the surname Messenger in Swindon and the town's favourite daughter, ex-glamour girl Melinda, springs to mind.

But, in his own field, her brother, Jamie, 33, is just as big a name, taking on the world's best paragliders on a regular basis.

This week he has had official confirmation of a place in the GB team for this year's European championships being held in Serbia.

We caught up with him in Nepal - via email, of course - where he works as a paragliding pilot for six months each year to fund his competitive streak.

"I started hang-gliding when I was 16, and learned with my brother Warren and dad Terry," he said.

"While we were lugging the gliders up the hill we noticed the paraglider students could do three flights for every one of ours, so we swapped over.

"We learned in Wiltshire, flying at sites on the Marlborough Downs and near Draycott.

"I didn't start out with any ambitions other than to have a wonderful time soaring the hills of England and South Wales, but it's one of those sports where you never stop learning, and the gliders are also continuously improving too.

"If you're a goal-oriented person - and a bit competitive - you aim to achieve more and more, and therefore keep having fun."

Jamie said he knew he wanted to work with paragliding by the mid 1990s - the lifestyle is stress-free, he's outside all the time and gets to meet all kinds of people, sharing his passion with them.

As well as flying tandem commercially, and guiding pilots who are keen to improve, Jamie takes part in numerous competitions each year.

Last summer he raced in north America, coming second in a major American competition, fourth in their nationals, and then won the Canadian nationals.

In September, he flew in the last round of the British nationals, which were held at St Andre, in the south of France, and finished second.

Each competition has about 150 pilots taking part, flying a cross country route each day for a week, which extends to two weeks in major championships, hitting a number of check points before a final airborne sprint to the finish line.

"It is an amazing challenge - you need skill to read the weather conditions along the route in order to find the fastest route, you need to judge how much height is required for the final glide into goal, as we sometimes go on gliding as far as 20 kilometres from the finish of the race, and you need huge courage for flying as fast as possible in often very turbulent air in order to beat the others, as we often fly in large gaggles, a bit like a cycling peloton.

"When paragliders collapse at high speeds - and 60km an hour is fast for a paraglider - the result is often quite dramatic and needs fast reactions to avoid splatting."

This year Jamie has a hectic competition schedule, with the Europeans coming up, as well as the top level Paragliding World Cup, where pilots are chosen purely on the previous year's results. Legs take place in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Brazil, although Jamie will have to skip the Brazilian race due to costs.

"Finally I'm going to try and win the British nationals, which takes place over three events in France, Spain, and the UK," he said.

"Competing came about naturally for me, as I am naturally competitive, and competitions are an ideal way to see how you are progressing as well as learning from the best pilots around.

"All in all I have a really hectic summer. I hope to do some guiding and tandem flights when not competing to try and pay for some of it, but I would obviously love to get a sponsor to help with the travelling costs."