My 60th birthday is on 16th May. To celebrate the occasion I considered putting my feet up and relaxing with a nice glass or two of something cold; but quickly rejected the idea when someone suggested an alternative. How much better it would be to spend most of the day standing around in a muddy field waiting for the rain to stop, scrambling onto a old Cessna (the rust-bucket in the photo above) during a brief lull in the downpour then leaping out of it at 13,500 feet. After falling for around 50 seconds at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour - plenty of time to remember all the highlights of my life - the tandem instructor would deploy the parachute in order to - hopefully - make the remaining 5,000 feet pass in a more leisurely fashion.

Naturally, I leapt at the opportunity. However, I didn't want the obvious pleasure of scaring myself witless to serve no purpose - hence this page, and the opportunity to fundraise for Reach Learning Disability, my favourite local charity.

I have been working for Reach since 2015; my wife Melissa started much earlier, in 2011. They enable people with learning disabilities to gain the skills and confidence they need to have a better quality of life in their community.

They run a programme of exciting courses and activities at their bases in Newark, Southwell, Mansfield and Flower Pod. Everything they do is designed to enable people with learning disabilities to lead happier, healthier lives and to aspire to a better future.

This year, Reach is hoping to progress an important accommodation project in Southwell, providing much longed-for housing for 12 adults with learning disabilities in their own community. Your gift will help this to become a reality.

No donations will be used towards the skydiving itself; we are self funding all activity costs.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to Reach. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for Reach.