On Saturday, July 21st, I jumped from 13,000 in a tandem skydive to raise money for the NAS.  My brother and one of my cousins both suffer from severe autism and I have been around people with varying severities and forms of Autistic Spectrum Disorder my whole life, and thought it was about time I did something to fundraise for the NAS.

The "jump" took place as part of Cambridge RAG's Great Cambridge Jump event, where a group of people do the skydive with UK Parachuting at Sibson, near Peterborough, to raise funds for RAG or a charity of their own choice.  I helped to organise the last Great Cambridge Jump and thought I might give it a go myself this time.  RAG's website is at www.cambridgerag.org.uk

I covered my entire fee for the Skydive out of my own pocket, so dig deep knowing it's all going to the National Autistic Society.

Also, for the record, freefall is really freaky.  I don't have any photos of the event because getting a skydive filmed costs about £100 extra, but if you are interested to know, I reached a top speed of 172 mph in freefall and dropped like a stone for about 45 seconds before the parachute opened.  Then, a few minutes later, my instructor and I glided in for a landed, skidded along the ground a bit and then flipped over so I ended up finishing my jump face down in the mud....