Jamie tells his story .......

 

On Wednesday the 2nd of September I completed a tandem charity skydive in aid of the Niemann-Pick Disease Group. This is because I have a sister, Claire, who suffers from Niemann-Pick Type C.

I arrived at Hinton airfield on a dull a drizzly morning. After the briefing, I nervously put on all the necessary gear and followed the instructor to board the plane. At this moment in time I was praying for rain in the hopes it would be cancelled!

Whilst we were going along the runway my heart was beating 20 to the dozen and I wondered why I ever thought a tandem skydive was a good idea.

The plane slowly climbed to a height of 12,000ft and I was the first one to be jumping. There was no going back now, and after a count of 3, I was pushed out of the plane.  As I fell my life flashed before my eyes, and my bottom was clenched very tightly.

After all the swearing I managed to open my eyes and start to enjoy the experience. By the side of us was the camera man who videoed the whole thing from start to finish. Despite it being dull and cloudy, at 12,000ft it was blue sky and sunshine!

As we were descending at 120 mph, I could see for miles and miles. The actual descent only took about 4 minutes and I had a perfect landing, still standing on my feet!  However I did have a nose bleed. The whole experience was one of the best things I have done in my life so far and I would love to do it again one day.

The best thing about it was that I had massive support and sponsorship and managed to raise around £500 for Niemann-Pick!