ipswich: A women’s group have today thrown their weight behind a fundraising drive to erect a lasting memorial to one of the town’s greatest heroines.

Ipswich-born aviation pioneer Edith Cook was the first British woman to fly a plane and took part in more than 300 parachute jumps.

A plaque was put up at the place of her birth in the town, but members of the Edith Cook Statue Project have set out on a funding drive to put up a statue in her honour.

Today, Joy Bounds, of the Ipswich Women’s Festival Group, said she backed the bid to create the tribute in the pioneering woman’s legacy.

Ms Bounds said: “Edith Cook was a great pioneering aviatrix and balloonist and all of our group would entirely support any kind of recognition of what she did.”

Andy Taylor, chairman of the project committee and part of the Suffolk Aviation Heritage Group, said it was vital to pay homage to someone who “quite literally reached for the sky”.

He urged members of the public to support their campaign to raise �50,000 for the project.

He said: “I now appeal to the good people of Suffolk and Ipswich, who have shown their outstanding capacity to back a worthy cause in recent times, to get behind the Edith Cook Statue Project.”

Donations can be made to “Edith Cook Memorial Trust Account” at any Ipswich Building Society branch.

n Do you support the bid to create a lasting legacy to Edith Cook in the town? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or you can send an e-mail to starletters@archant.co.uk