Showing posts with label other news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label other news. Show all posts
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
PENSIONER TAKES LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR CHARITY
This article appeared very briefly on the Express & Echo website on the morning of a revamp, and, as far as I'm aware, neither made it in to print nor is available on the website anymore, which is a shame...
PENSIONER TAKES LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR CHARITY
Date : 15.07.08
A farmer aged in his 60s almost doubled his fundraising target when he decided to skydive 15,000ft in aid of the charity Cancer Research UK.
Pat Milton, 67, from Lower Tale, near Plymtree, had never parachuted before but wanted to raise as much money as possible for the good cause because advances in cancer treatment have helped a number of people close to him.He said: "I know friends and family members who have suffered from cancer and some of them have died.
"I was talking about it one day in April when the subject of skydiving came up and I said that I would do it and it snowballed from there.
"I talked to a neighbour about it, who gave me a lot of confidence, so I booked it and allowed myself two months to raise as much money as possible.
"I started getting sponsorship from friends and neighbours and was doing so well and that made me think I had to do it - I couldn't hand the money back.
"My ambition was to raise £1,000 but I exceeded that and I think the total must be at least £1,700 now, which is fantastic.
"People have been so good-hearted and have given me such a warm recep- tion."
And despite having concerns over his age - and, he admits, worries that people would think that he was losing his marbles - Pat went through with the tandem parachute jump at Dunkeswell Airfield in East Devon and loved every second of it.
"One person asked me if I was mad and I said 'yes'," he laughed.
"It was fantastic, though. I wasn't nervous because the instructor was very good and very clear and came down with me. He was excellent and put me at ease.
"The worst part was when I knelt in the door of the plane to come out.
"I was more worried about the landing than anything else, because at my age your bones aren't as strong, but it was marvellous and we didn't even bump.
"We were in free-fall for two miles and then we sailed down.
"It was a marvellous view.
"A lot of people said they could never do it but after doing it, I think they could.
"I have no plans to do it again but I wouldn't be afraid to."
Skydive UK's owner, Jason Farrant, who piloted Pat down to the ground under a specially-adapted tandem parachute, described his passenger as "very brave".
He said: "He did it from 15,000ft which is the highest you can jump in the world without oxygen.
"It's a good effort for his age and he did it very well and calmly.
"A lot of people talk about skydiving but few dare to do it.
"You've therefore got to take your hat off to him."
PENSIONER TAKES LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR CHARITY
Date : 15.07.08
A farmer aged in his 60s almost doubled his fundraising target when he decided to skydive 15,000ft in aid of the charity Cancer Research UK.
Pat Milton, 67, from Lower Tale, near Plymtree, had never parachuted before but wanted to raise as much money as possible for the good cause because advances in cancer treatment have helped a number of people close to him.He said: "I know friends and family members who have suffered from cancer and some of them have died.
"I was talking about it one day in April when the subject of skydiving came up and I said that I would do it and it snowballed from there.
"I talked to a neighbour about it, who gave me a lot of confidence, so I booked it and allowed myself two months to raise as much money as possible.
"I started getting sponsorship from friends and neighbours and was doing so well and that made me think I had to do it - I couldn't hand the money back.
"My ambition was to raise £1,000 but I exceeded that and I think the total must be at least £1,700 now, which is fantastic.
"People have been so good-hearted and have given me such a warm recep- tion."
And despite having concerns over his age - and, he admits, worries that people would think that he was losing his marbles - Pat went through with the tandem parachute jump at Dunkeswell Airfield in East Devon and loved every second of it.
"One person asked me if I was mad and I said 'yes'," he laughed.
"It was fantastic, though. I wasn't nervous because the instructor was very good and very clear and came down with me. He was excellent and put me at ease.
"The worst part was when I knelt in the door of the plane to come out.
"I was more worried about the landing than anything else, because at my age your bones aren't as strong, but it was marvellous and we didn't even bump.
"We were in free-fall for two miles and then we sailed down.
"It was a marvellous view.
"A lot of people said they could never do it but after doing it, I think they could.
"I have no plans to do it again but I wouldn't be afraid to."
Skydive UK's owner, Jason Farrant, who piloted Pat down to the ground under a specially-adapted tandem parachute, described his passenger as "very brave".
He said: "He did it from 15,000ft which is the highest you can jump in the world without oxygen.
"It's a good effort for his age and he did it very well and calmly.
"A lot of people talk about skydiving but few dare to do it.
"You've therefore got to take your hat off to him."
Sunday, 6 July 2008
15,000ft and falling
Well, after a lot of hanging around, Thursday evening was very pleasant and Dad did a tandem skydive from 15,000ft! Looks like he's well on the way to raising over £1,600 for Cancer Research. Well done!
More photos are here.
More photos are here.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
front page news
Talex now has a link to Dad's sponsorship page, let's hope the weather is favourable tomorrow.
Monday, 30 June 2008
Hold the front page!
Dad's parachute jump has also made it to the front page of the Higher and Lower Tale community website - TaleX - I didn't know such a thing existed. I've emailed the owner and asked them to put in a link to Dad's sponsorship page.
Dad's parachute jump
didn't happen on Friday, but it's not too late to sponsor him at his Just Giving website, should now be taking place this Thursday, weather permitting.
Thursday, 7 October 2004
Diary of a nobody
Well my attempt to become a blogger in the week that Belle Du Jour finished, started off in a suitably Pooter-esque manner...
Having set up the blog on Thursday (during my lunch break at work) I promptly took our home access to the internet offline by breaking our phone landline. I'm at home on Fridays and the phone extension lead that we use broke. A. suggested on Saturday morning that we call BT and arrange for them to move the BT socket. The response from BT was that it was (by their own confession) expensive (order of GBP 100) and you should do it yourself. Knowing that it was a BT line I got A. to call them back to confirm prior to opening up the main socket to see what was inside. This action caused one of the small cables inside to snap off it's connection, and whilst twisting this around to strip off the end of the cable I managed to snap off a second connection. A. was able to verify that the voltage between these two was 50 Volts (the one real use I've seen her put her multimeter purchased from E-bay to good use), and I gave up there and then. A third call to BT was made (via a mobile!) to get them to send an Engineer around to fix our connection and move the socket. Sixty quid call out, sixty quid an hour for labour, no part hours! The Engineer checked we had been told what it would cost and apologised in advance of telling us this. It must be strange working for a company where you have to apologise for the charges prior to every job.
Having set up the blog on Thursday (during my lunch break at work) I promptly took our home access to the internet offline by breaking our phone landline. I'm at home on Fridays and the phone extension lead that we use broke. A. suggested on Saturday morning that we call BT and arrange for them to move the BT socket. The response from BT was that it was (by their own confession) expensive (order of GBP 100) and you should do it yourself. Knowing that it was a BT line I got A. to call them back to confirm prior to opening up the main socket to see what was inside. This action caused one of the small cables inside to snap off it's connection, and whilst twisting this around to strip off the end of the cable I managed to snap off a second connection. A. was able to verify that the voltage between these two was 50 Volts (the one real use I've seen her put her multimeter purchased from E-bay to good use), and I gave up there and then. A third call to BT was made (via a mobile!) to get them to send an Engineer around to fix our connection and move the socket. Sixty quid call out, sixty quid an hour for labour, no part hours! The Engineer checked we had been told what it would cost and apologised in advance of telling us this. It must be strange working for a company where you have to apologise for the charges prior to every job.
Thursday, 16 September 2004
First post
Here goes...
I used to keep a diary but stopped some years ago, recently I've felt I'd like to start again and as I spend far too much time in front of a computer maybe a blog is the way to go.
I used to keep a diary but stopped some years ago, recently I've felt I'd like to start again and as I spend far too much time in front of a computer maybe a blog is the way to go.
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