Fear of heights skydive pair raise nearly £1,000 for charity

A BEXHILL mum and daughter chose a novel way to overcome their fear of heights, by skydiving out of a plane at 12,000 feet and raising nearly £1,000 for charity along the way.

Nina Cruttenden, 55, and daughter Donna Ray, 24, were finally able to do their long anticipated skydive on October 19, after it had previously been cancelled due to bad weather.

Bravely facing their fear of heights head-on the pair travelled to Kent’s Skydiving Centre at Headcorn aerodrome to do the parachute jump and Donna said they had “the experience of a lifetime”.

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In order to do the skydive the ladies were each strapped to an instructor and jumped in tandem. Donna admits that whilst sitting on the edge of the plane waiting to do the jump, their fear of heights almost got the better of them: “We were second guessing ourselves, we both thought ‘we don’t want to do this’! But all the instructors were absolutely great, we jumped and it was an amazing experience.”

Nina had the added thrill of jumping through two rainbows and the pair received a video of their experience and were presented with a certificate to say they had competed the skydive.

So far the ladies have raised almost £1,000 for the Help for Heroes, a charity which supports the wounded in Britain’s conflicts. Donations are still coming in and after viewing the video of the skydive some people have even doubled their sponsorship.

The experience appears to have helped the pair conquer their fear of heights, Donna said: “We both loved it and want to do it again.”

Nina and Donna are still taking donations for Help for Heroes, visit their website at: www.bmycharity.com/V2/ninacruttenden or alternatively: www.helpforheroes.org.uk