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I have always been happier with both my feet on the ground, and even up until a few months ago I would never have thought that I would ever do a skydive. I have always had a problem with heights, and am absolutely terrified. I suppose it was this fear that made the challenge a good idea to raise funds for Bowel Cancer UK. It had been almost two years since mum passed away from this awful disease, and with my next charity book not yet finished, I felt that I wanted to do something significant this year to raise more funds. At the height of the summer heatwave in July I went to Hinton Airfield just outside Brackley, in Northants, to do The Big Jump for Bowel Cancer UK.
There is little in the way of training that you can do for a skydive. I did go up The Empire State Building in May, and although the views were incredible, it was very scary being up so high, so perhaps not the best way of building my confidence. There was of course no way that I could back out of the skydive. As soon as I had set up my fundraising page the sponsorship began to come in, so it was a case of working hard at building up some kind of mental barrier to try and get through the skydive.
The jump was supposed to be from 10,000 feet, but on the day we were told it was actually 13,000! But what was another 3,000 feet going to matter… Once out of the plane we were told we would freefall for about 45 seconds, and around 5,000 feet, before the parachute opened, and then it would take around 5 more minutes to descent to the ground.
I managed to get myself on the first plane, as I wanted to spend as little time as possible worrying about it. My thinking was the sooner I got started, the sooner it would all be over. The flight took about 12 minutes to get to the drop zone, and Chris, my professional tandem partner, gave me a great guide of the local area from the plane. He was very good at taking my mind off the jump!
There was no time to worry about whether I would be able to do the jump. We shuffled into position very quickly, and pretty much before I had a chance to think about what was about to happen we were out of the plane, and into the sky. Initially I forgot to open out my arms after the tap on shoulders from Chris. He ended up pulling my arms open. I think I had got a bit mixed up, and thought that I opened my arms after 45 seconds. Anyway I think I can be forgiven while plummeting to the earth from 13,000 feet!
I have to admit that the freefall was incredible. The initial almost surreal type moment of jumping out of the plane, followed by a few spins and then the wind and noise, and seeing the countryside so far below. After the freefall the parachute opened, and this for me was the worst part. I hadn’t got myself ready, and so when we broke out of the 100mph fall, I think my stomach carried on going! It left me feeling quite nauseous, and at this point with the parachute open I was much more aware the height, and that there was nothing below us. However, as you can see the views were magnificent. You can still appreciate such things in moments of terror!
During the descent Chris explained how the parachute was steered and most importantly how the brakes worked. There wasn’t much wind which made for a potentially more difficult landing. Chris expertly took us down safely, and I have never been so thankful to feel the gentle bump of us landing. People had said to me beforehand that I would love it, and want to get back straight back into the plane and do it all over again. Well…. no! I didn’t hate it, and yes I kind of enjoyed it, but not enough to want to do it again. It was an incredible and unforgettable experience.
The whole point behind the skydive was to raise funds for Bowel Cancer UK. What I didn’t expect was the incredible and amazing support I got from people making some wonderfully generous donations. It meant that I raised £2000 which was double my original target. I thank every single person so very much for every single penny donated.
I am now concentrating on finishing my new fundraising book, The Record. I am hoping to publish that book in the first part of 2019, so I am hard at work with that in these last coupe of months before Christmas. The skydive was dedicated to Mum’s memory, and as I jumped out of the plane I had an image of her very much in front of me. It’s also dedicated to anyone who has been affected by bowel cancer, especially those who are currently under treatment. It’s the most awful disease, and the day that no-one dies of bowel cancer can’t come soon enough!
