DARE Devil Grahaeme Bastable will make his first public appearance at The Maltings precinct ahead of his first death-defying escapade.

St Alban's new superhero will be drumming up support and sponsorship money tomorrow for his first challenge as The Maltings Man'.

The St Albans & Harpenden Review teamed up with The Maltings to launch an exhilarating competition to find the first ever Maltings Man.

Grahaeme was handpicked as the lucky winner and will now take part in four exciting challenges to raise money for local causes.

Grahaeme's hair-raising stunts will include a sky dive, a Zap Cat catamaran race and swimming with sharks.

The first Maltings challenge is a Top Gun style close-manoeuvre flight, which will take place at the end of this month.

The St Albans firefighter will experience an intensive flight and safety briefing, before getting kitted out in Top Gun-style flight suits and parachutes.

"It's a bit scary, but I'm an adrenaline junkie, so I'm really looking forward to getting started" said Grahaeme.

"What I think is great about doing this, is that the money is going to local causes.

"I want to meet as many local people as possible before each stunt, as some of the people that come to see me may benefit from my adventure."

The thrillseeker will take off into the skies just like Tom Cruise for a 40-minute flight with an instructor in an Extra 300 - a high-performance lightweight aircraft which is one of the best aerobatic planes in the world.

As well as experiencing an airborne tactic demonstration and formation manoeuvres in Gloucestershire, he will also get the chance to try out some manoeuvres and see if they can defeat an enemy plane.

Although Grahaeme will experience these thrilling stunts for free, he will still need to raise at least £250 in sponsorship per stunt.

His sponsorship will go into a special bank account to make up The Maltings Partners Fund - a dedicated fund aimed at making a difference to local charities, organisations and people living in St Albans.

Readers can show their support by visiting Grahaeme in The Maltings precinct, in St Albans between 11am and 2pm on Wednesday, October 10.