Dear All Melanie, Maria, Natalie, Angie & Antony would like to thank you for visiting my our fundraising page. Here is an update of our day:- By Melanie EastwoodD-DAY arrives and the intrepid motors.co.uk and findaproperty.com team, oh and Zippy our mascot, arrive at the Kent Regional News & head office at 09.00 hours, with the sudden realisation there is no getting out of it! Oh my God! Out of the morning mist two shiny black vehicles come into view, a rather lush Toyota Hi Lux and a Rav 4, kindly sent by Mark Cowell of Motorline Toyota in Ashford, along with two dedicated drivers, to chaperone us for the day. They seem rather like armed guards in case we try to bolt. After knocking back what was probably our last latte, complete with treble sugars to get the adrenalin pumping, we set off on our 45 minute journey, and what we wondered may be our last, to Headcorn. Arriving at Headcorn Aerodrome at about 10am, we met up with our family and loved ones, did they know something we didn't? Also there was our photographer for the day, James Langton Way, Stuart Minty marketing manager for The Kent Cancer Trust, Clare Moffat head of national sales Northcliffe, and our motors and property manager Andy Standing, or jump co-ordinator extraordinaire, as we like to call him. After checking in we all went for our briefing, with the rather mad but very funny Clem, one of the Headcorn instructors. With our smiles slightly forced and nervous throughout the talk, we all wondered what the hell we had let ourselves in for! We were then told that unfortunately there may be a long wait ahead of us due to low flying cloud! Safety laws insist that you can see the ground from the plane! I was sure we would get there whether you could see it or not! So we all decided to race to the cafeteria and fill our bellies, not a good idea I hear you all say! We spent the next few hours amusing ourselves along with the rest of the airfield by doing a variety of mad things. Acrobatics from our school days, handstands, headstands etc, and then seeing who could fit a Mars bar in their mouth sideways! This title was finally taken by Maria Hurley our lovely motors team leader just edging out Claire Moffat in a close contest. As the day drew on it looked more and more likely that we would not get to complete our mission, and although initially we would have done anything to get out of it, we now were overwhelmed with disappointment of having to return to base without a jump in sight. Just when all seemed lost, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on what appeared to be a gorgeous summer evening. Then suddenly across the speaker came these immortal words: "Eastwood, Drake, Wiltshire, Ward and Barrett! Get your kit on!". Oh my God. We were actually going to do this. Panic! Help! All kitted up in our "fetching" but rather tight jumpsuits, we strode across the airfield like Maverick and the gang from the movie Topgun! "Bagsy I'll be Kelly Magillis!" I said. We were then introduced to our instructors. These men were going to save our lives, well at least we hoped they would! (I had taken out insurance just in case anyway.) As we neared the plane we knew this was it, but instead of fear we were strangely excited. We bundle in, packed like sardines. As we began our climb to 12,000ft, our instructors talked us through what was about to happen, (as if we didn't know!), most of which was lost above our heads as our eyes became glazed to the fact that we were fast approaching the point of no return. Suddenly the door flew open and the pressure in the cabin changed, this was it our 15 minutes of fame, well slightly less than that. We would soon be freefalling at approximately 170 mph (in my estimations we would be hitting the deck in roughly a couple of minutes!). One by one we took it in turn to dangle our bodies out of the speeding aircraft with only a rather large hanky strapped to our instructors back for comfort! And then it happened…… to each and everyone of us, the most amazing time of our lives! Can you imagine dropping a rock from a high building, that was us flying downwards towards the earth, as the ground grew closer our screams melted away and our grins grew wider! Awesome doesn't even begin to explain it. After around 40 seconds the parachutes opened and the whooshing stopped, peace and quite surrounded us as we floated to the ground and the sunset in the distance. From us all "The Mad Devils", I think this was probably the best day of our lives and to better it still we did it all for charity and with the help of all our generous sponsors we have raised nearly £6,000 towards helping find cures for cancer with The Kent Cancer Trust. It's still not too late to donate, please visit us at www.justgiving.com/krnmjump or send a cheque to our office in Canterbury. Oh and by the way watch this space, we have decided to do it all again by White Water Rafting and hope to double the money. To be continued………………………………..
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