Dream Spitfire flight at Compton Abbas Airfield for terminally ill New Forest grandad Brian Fox

AN 88-year-old New Forest grandfather who has been given less than a year to live has fulfilled a childhood dream of flying in a Spitfire.

Brian Fox has been diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer and created a bucket list – with taking to the skies in the iconic fighter as number one.

And he fulfilled that dream in an Aero Legends Spitfire experience from Compton Abbas Airfield in north Dorset.

Mr Fox said the flight had been “exhilarating, unforgettable and wonderful”.

It took him across the Dorset and Wiltshire countryside, the New Forest, down the coast near Old Harry Rocks and back up past Corfe Castle.

“To see all these places I’m so familiar with on the ground, surrounded by my family watching on the ground – it’s an experience I won’t forget. It will stay with me,” he told the BBC.

He had also been “desperate” for a victory roll in the aircraft.

“I was with a very good pilot called Charlie Brown from Aero Legends at Compton Abbas Airfield, and he said to me, ‘Are you up for this Brian?’ And I said, ‘Go for it, Charlie, go for it!’.”

Mr Fox grew up in east London and some of his earliest memories are of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

He remembers watching dogfights between the RAF and Luftwaffe.

“We all cheered when they did a victory roll, which we saw several of and it left me with an abiding fondness for the [Spitfire] – it became so iconic, such a crucial part of our history,” he said.

On his terminal diagnosis, Mr Fox added: “I was suddenly told to my surprise that I didn’t have quite as long to go as I’d always expected, so that’s what galvanised me.”