After days of sitting around waiting for the wind to drop, 3 of our jumpers got the chance to go on their 4th attempt. Donor Development Manager Geraldine Long, Financial Assistant Karen Black, and Administrative Assistant Suzanne Shaw made their 10,000ft tandem skydive on Saturday 16th August. After a refresher course on how to leave the aircraft and what to do on the way down, the trio set off after 10am with a mixture of nerves and excitement. The brave AICR staff made a 20 second freefall before their instructor pulled the parachute and they floated back down to the airfield.
Geraldine and Suzanne made safe landings but unfortunately, due to a strong downdraft as she made her approach, Karen and her instructor were blown into the ground at speed and poor Karen suffered a double fracture to her leg.
She was rushed to hospital by ambulance and had an operation a couple of days later to put metal pins in her leg. Safely back at home, Karen is literally putting her feet up and all of the staff and supporters wish her a speedy recovery.
Debbie Wheelans and Helen Ironside successfully completed their jump on Sunday 12th October 2008 and loved every minute of it! Norman Barrett is the only remaining staff member to still do their jump so he will be hopefully doing his in November. No pressure Norman!!
Well done to the all of the brave staff - we will bring you more details as soon as we have them. In the meantime, if you would like to show your support of this great fundraising effort, please make a donation here.
You can see all the skydive photos on our Flickr page.
