Hi,

It's that time again.  Time for me to do something daft in order to raise money for charity.

I'm planning to up the stakes a little compared to my previous fundraising attempts - no more micro-lighting (easy), spending time in prison (slightly alarming) or tandem skydiving (scary but 'hands free')...  This time, I' have completed an 'Accelerated Freefall' skydive on 13th October.

Accelerated Freefall is more hands on and complicated - I received 7 hours of ground school training where I was taught how to dive from the aircraft, fly my body in a stable position, open my own parachute (eek!) and fly it safely to the ground.  Once at 13,000 feet, we jumped!

Why am I doing this crazy exercise?

Regrettably, my mother has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time.  She's valiantly fought and survived the previous instances, however, this time, it's terminal.  She has been diagnosed with biliary cancer (a rare cancer in itself), which has spread to the lymphatic system.  At the time of writing, life expectancy is just 9 - 12 months.  Although these things are unpredictable in respect of how well she'll be and for how long, the ending is unfortunately inevitable. 

She's being treated with chemotherapy as a day patient at the Royal Free on a new medical trial, which will hopefully improve her quality of life and possibly longevity, but who knows.

Over the coming months, we'll be receiving help from Macmillan Cancer Support and St Luke's Hospice (Harrow), so to say thank you for their efforts and to provide a financial contribution for their services (to us and many others), I'm doing this madcap jump in order to raise a significant sum.  Hopefully T-Mobile will then match my total.

Through justgiving.com, I can only assign my jump to one charity.  Therefore, please decide whether you would rather donate to Macmillan Cancer Support or St Luke's Hospice or, ideally, split your donation 50/50 between the two.  See www.justgiving.com/timdewinter-stlukes or www.justgiving.com/timdewinter-macmillan to donate to the specified charity and/or donate to both (please!).  (Cash or cheques also gratefully received.)

We appreciate your moral support and well wishes; may I ask for your support in this practical way too?

Tim

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