Zenoids Doing Good: The day I jumped from the sky
At 5am on Saturday 6th April I found myself driving to Swansea Airport a bag full of nerves. Today was the day I was going to put my life in the hands of a complete stranger and a piece of material shaped to a parachute whilst I jumped out of a plane to raise money for the Stroke Association. Eeek!
Arriving at the airport I was welcomed by lots of friendly faces ahead of the training session. For the next half an hour we were taught how to fall from the aeroplane, how to land without breaking both legs and what we should do if the aircraft failed (again, eeek!). If I wasn’t nervous before I definitely was now.
Having convinced myself I was not going to come out of this alive, I went to the café to stuff myself with bacon rolls and chocolate whilst texting farewell messages to family and friends. A little dramatic I admit but with everyone planning their wills around me it seemed the only option.
‘Lauren Willmott can you please come to the main room to meet your instructor’. Those words turned me to a ball of jelly. I was on the next round of jumps. Walking into the main hall I was pleased to be met by the lovely Rob who dressed me in my stylish onesie and strapped me into my harness. This was it.
Making it out to the aircraft my legs began to shake. When we were finally in the air, 13,000ft up *gulp* the door was opened and solo skydivers began throwing themselves out of the plane. Finally it was my turn. I shuffled to the door with Rob tied tightly to me. Hanging out with my legs and head tipped back Rob pushed off from the plane and suddenly we were somersaulting in the air, me biting onto my lip to stop myself from screaming out. We fell, finally facing the right way, at 120mph for 50 seconds before Rob deployed the parachute. Thank god, the parachute worked. I’d passed the first test, the parachute was open, I was safe, I just had to make sure I now didn’t break my legs landing.
Looking around I was met with breath-taking views of Swansea and the coast. Rob handed me the reigns after doing a few tricks and I had a go at steering us around. We spent around 5 minutes in the air before coming into land. This was it, I pulled my legs up as high as they would go and shut my eyes as I braced myself for the landing. Opening one eye I looked around to find us safely on the ground. I’d done it! My skydive was over and I was suddenly filled with the biggest adrenaline rush.
I was pleased to raise £520 for the Stroke Association and along with my other team mates we managed to raise a phenomenal £11,500. Now I have the bug for skydiving and am already looking in to building my experience up for a solo dive and raising even more money for charity.
