The Sky's The Limit

Click here to watch the video.

I’ve actually got a Doctor’s Certificate to prove that I’m not mad - although some people might disagree!

I even questioned it myself at 8.30am on Saturday 7th July when I and 4 others were officiously ordered out of the airfield’s security gatehouse by a Jobs-Worth who told us to wait until we were invited to enter, one at a time, to get clearance for our parachute jumps. (Which is why I needed the certificate in the first place).

I’d been haunted by a TV programme about child carers and how hard these poor children’s lives often are, and I really wanted to do something positive to help.

The idea for a sponsored parachute jump was my niece’s - she’s always wanted to do one, apparently - and by the end of what I would term a “very convivial” evening out with my wife, my niece and her husband, it seemed like a great idea to me, too!

It was easy to find someone to take my money for the jump, it was easy to find a charity to support – Barnardo’s run programmes for these young carers - and it was even relatively easy to get family, friends and colleagues to sponsor me. But the closer it got, the less inclined I was to do it. It was almost the last straw when Jobs-Worth spoke to me and my fellow jumpers like that. If I could have walked away then and there, I would have.

So I was feeling little surly and a lot scared by the time we’d had the briefing and I was introduced to Nathan, my jumping partner. He is a big, burly fellow and a member of the Red Devils which made me feel a bit better until I asked him how many of these jumps he’d done. He said “This is the first one, but don’t worry, I’m sure I will be quite good when I get it out of the way!” Seeing the look of horror on my face, he added that he’d had to do 800 jumps before he was qualified to jump in tandem.

Before I’d even had a cup of coffee, we’d had the parachute inspection, been kitted out in a rather fetching skull cap and goggles and were wedged in the plane with 3 other tandem jumping pairs and a 5 man parachute display team out for a practice run.

We got to 12,000 feet but I didn’t have much time to admire the fantastic view because Nathan volunteered us to be first out after the after the display team. I watched them go; then the cameraman who was videoing me climbed out and hung on and with equal measures of mounting excitement and terror I was edged towards the door.

It looked a long, long way down. My heart was pumping and the next thing I knew, we were actually falling.

Initially, there wasn’t really any sensation of speed, just my head jerked back and the air rushing past, but then Nathan turned me almost upside down and I saw plane moving away and then I felt as though everything was speeding up. He flipped me back into position and by the time we got to 5,500 feet, I was really enjoying myself.

That 45 seconds before the parachute opened went in a flash but there was time to do a few cute things for the benefit of the camera (watch the video!), and then the parachute opened and we glided effortlessly through the clouds, the ground rose up and we landed perfectly.

What an adrenalin rush! It’s hard to describe how elated I felt except to say I wanted to do it all again, straight away.

As a little post script, I and the other 3 who were lined up like kiddies and made to wait to get in to the airfield, lined ourselves up and made old Jobs-Worth invite us in to hand back our passes. One at a time, of course. Made us feel better, anyway!!

I raised £450 all of which went to Barnardo’s for their Young Carers Programme. A big thank you to everyone who supported me.

Barnardo’s

Barnardo's is a charity that provides help and support to children through various projects throughout the UK. Their projects are directly related to tackling poverty, abuse or protecting vulnerable children in situations which are quite literally unimaginable to me.

The project I am particularly supporting is their Young Carers Project.

Did you know?

• The average age of a young carer in the UK is only 12!
• A 2001 census shows that there are 175,000 young carers in the UK, 13,000 of whom care for more than 50 hours a week. What do you think the figures are in 2007??
• More than half of young carers live in one-parent families and almost a third care for someone with mental health problems.