Alabaré is an excellent charity which looks after homeless servicemen and women. We've visited some of their projects and have been profoundly impressed.

Yesterday, Mervyn completed his Alabaré fundraising skydive at the age of 80 +.

On 1st June at 0900, Mervyn and 7 others were the first stick to go up to 15,000ft with their individual "minders" in a small aircraft at Old Sarum Aerodrome, Salisbury. The weather was glorious, clear and sunny.

Mervyn thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However, he says that the initial one minute freefall was certainly challenging at 125 mph for 10,000 feet. With 5,000ft to go, the parachute opened and the peace and views of land and sea towards the Isle of Wight were glorious. Later Mervyn said "Getting out of the door tightened me up a bit and I didn’t enjoy the freefall, but once the chute opened, it was terrific...."

On behalf of Alabaré, we are grateful for the many donations received from friends and family. You have generously contributed towards the support of our veterans. The Alabaré team told Mervyn that his sponsors had achieved the greatest sum, so thank you all.

If you've not yet done so, there is still time to contribute to help Mervyn to reach his target sum.