• Jon Smallwood has pulled off more than 5,000 blood-rushing stunts
• Took up fundraising drive after suffering leukaemia three years ago

School leader Jon Smallwood brings a whole new meaning to the word head teacher – after performing more than 5,000 headstands around the world.

The 54-year-old deputy head has been pulling off the stunts to raise money for cancer charities after battling leukaemia three years ago.

He became hooked on headstands as a youngster and travels the globe performing his party trick in strange locations.

Over the past year, he has performed a headstand on a 30ft-high rock, the Orient Express and the Leaning Tower of Pisa – where he balanced at a matching angle.

The ‘Headstand King’, as he calls himself, has also performed the blood-rushing pose on the roof of his school, on a plane over Syria and on the checkout of a busy supermarket.

Jon, who works at Bredon School in Bushley, Gloucestershire, said: ‘I’ve always loved doing handstands and after recovering from leukaemia I decided I would put it to good use.

‘I decided I would only do a headstand if it is for money, which I will donate to charity.

‘Amazingly, people started daring me to pull headstands in stupid places with one person paying me £30 to do a headstand on a conveyor belt in a supermarket.’

Jon, of Dursley, Glos, normally performs headstands for fun and often stands on his head up to 50 times a day.

But he admits his 78-year-old mother told him off when he recently performed a headstand on the roof of his school.

The brave teacher, who was off work for five months with leukaemia, has now raised more than £2,000 for charity.

He plans to abseil down the front of Southampton Hospital in February before ending the stunt.

After that, he hopes to take pupils from Bredon School on a ten-mile walk across the Malvern Hills, where they’ll do ten headstands per mile.

He added: ‘All the kids at school know that I’ve had an illness. I try to show them that you don’t necessarily die from cancer.’ (Daily Mail)

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