Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor me online.

Jump completed with the full spectrum of emotions & feelings ... enormous trepidation, pure exhilaration, complete loss in the sense of time, slight giddyness, huge sense of achiement and satisfaction, but most of all total relief to land safely!  I'm really pleased I had the opportunity to do it and would encourage anyone reading this who has an inkling of doing the same to 'Go for it!'  and I'm extremely grateful to everyone who has sponsored me so generously.  A heart-felt 'Thank you' to all of you! 

Why have I set myself the fairly ambitious target of raising £2500 by leaping out of a plane at a height of 12,000 feet (just over 2¼ miles) bound to a total stranger with hopefully more than just his lunch pack strapped to his back?

Because I’ve always had the ambition to complete a parachute jump and more recently I’ve wanted to do something that ‘made a difference’.  Now I have the opportunity to satisfy both desires, although I’m reluctant to use the phrase ‘killing two birds …’ at this point! 

My aim is to raise at least £1000 for 2 very worthwhile charities, plus enough to cover the cost of jumping, insurance, etc so £2500 seemed like a nice round number.

Later this year, 1st to 8th Aug to be precise, I’ll be joining almost 50 others from the congregation of Horley Baptist Church (HBC) for a trip to Dorahoi, Romania.   The purpose of the visit is to provide a week long holiday club for the young people of the village, involving art & craft activities, football, songs, games and much more.  The cost of funding the project (transportation, accommodation, food, equipment, etc) will be in the region of £26,000. Although many of the participants are contributing to their own personal costs, a significant amount of money needs to be raised to cover the cost of equipment and to help those who want to volunteer their time, but are financially constrained to cover the whole cost of participating.  The holiday club will be hosted at the Centre of Hope, a Christian community centre operated by a charity called ‘God’s Love in Action’ or GLIA.  www.glia.org.uk

For those of you that would prefer not to give to a religious organisation, I have agreed with the GLIA Trustees that half of money raised will be used to make a donation to Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org).  All of us know someone that has had their life affected or even ended by cancer, in fact, 1 in 3 people will develop cancer during their lives.  So, if you want to help one of the people either side of you, (because this sort of thing never happens to us, does it?!) click on the ‘Sponsor Me Now’ button and we’ll sort out the rest.

I appreciate that there are innumerable demands on everyone’s finances, but I have faith that your generosity will enable me to meet (and possibly exceed?) my target.  Or to put it another way … as Bob Geldof once infamously said … ‘Just give us your f***ing money!  Seriously though, I thank you for taking the time to read this far and will be extremely grateful for whatever amount you donate.

Please be generous and … Thanks very much!   
Graham


Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: GLIA Centre of Hope will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor me now!

Many thanks for your support.