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Rutland columnist Allan Grey completes a charity skydive in aid of Supershoes and in memory of his wife Lorna




You get up in the morning, the sun is shining and you’re feeling content, maybe, if you’re lucky, you don’t have a care in the world, albeit that’s unlikely if you live on the wrong side of the tracks like me, writes Rutland columnist Allan Grey.

However, have you ever considered the chances of making it through the day alive, or more conversely the chances of not making it through the day alive? You might be coming down the stairs ready for your full English breakfast, you might be out walking into town, as in being a pedestrian, avoiding feral Range Rovers, you might be driving your car, if you’re fit and healthy like me you might even be riding your bicycle, you might even be going to a friends for lunch. Every one of these seemingly benign activities carry risk of injury, even risk of death.

Allan Grey with his family who completed a charity skydive for Supershoes
Allan Grey with his family who completed a charity skydive for Supershoes

I’m being a little presumptuous, but I guess the answer is no, you haven’t considered the risk, certainly not doing a mental risk assessment before carefully getting out of bed each morning. None of these activities scare you, you’ve done them all hundreds, if not thousands of times before, and survived.

Falls are the most significant cause of injury and accidental death. The lifetime odds of dying from a fall are one in 180 or one in 14,000 in a single year, but do we even think about managing that risk day to day? Are we scared by this significant risk? Nah, not really, bothered, who me, whatevs?

After that car accidents carry a lifetime risk of one in 270 or one in 21,000 annually, and the risk management for most of us is the automatic wearing of a seatbelt, maybe all those one in 270s forgot to buckle up. Then there’s drowning, dying in a fire or contracting food poisoning at that friend’s lunch. In fact in our lifetime, we're far more likely to be killed by the things we do every day, or things we don't even think about let alone are scared by.

Allan Grey did a charity skydive for Supershoes in memory of his Lovely Lady
Allan Grey did a charity skydive for Supershoes in memory of his Lovely Lady

Now imagine you had decided, or more aptly been press ganged into doing a skydive, albeit a tandem skydive, jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane for charity? In my case almost certainly a ‘once in a lifetime’ activity. Would you be apprehensive, or maybe scared, bricking it even? You bet, although I managed to maintain a nonchalant air of bravado throughout.

Our charity skydive had been organised for several months, four of us, and as the day drew nearer, the apprehension grew in all of us and on the morning of the jump, even if I didn’t actually do a full risk assessment, I did research the probability of returning home alive that evening. Unsurprisingly the chances of that safe return were very high, in fact 499,999 in 500,000, the risk of death a miniscule one in half a million.

And so there’s the paradox, the things we do every day and aren’t the least bit scared by are far more likely to kill us than a skydive, especially a tandem skydive that most of us will only do once in a lifetime. One skydiver however, who definitely didn’t do his risk assessment, was an American gentleman named Ivan Lester, tasked with filming a tandem skydive, he managed to jump out of a plane completely forgetting he wasn’t wearing his parachute; very sadly, he didn’t make it home that evening.

Our big day arrived, and accompanying me were my younger daughter, my 16 year old granddaughter and my 19 year old great-niece.

We were doing the skydive as a sponsored charity event in memory of my Lovely Lady who was well known for her crazy stunts like jumping off the Sky Tower in Auckland New Zealand, riding the world’s fastest zipwire in North Wales and abseiling off the Orbit at Olympic Park in East London, all to raise funds for her favourite charities. Our crazy stunt was in aid of Supershoes, a small charity that gifts artistically decorated Converse trainers to children and young people in the UK fighting cancer, empowering them and enhancing their physical and emotional wellbeing.

Our skydive was at Sibson and after a thorough briefing and eating some stomach settling chocolate as strongly advised, we met our tandems and boarded the aeroplane along with half a dozen solo skydivers. Sitting on benches either side of the plane we were carefully strapped very tightly to our tandems, whilst up and up we climbed, levelling out at 13,000 feet.

We all sat waiting our turn as one by one the solo skydivers departed the plane, us shuffling along the benches, getting closer and closer to the open door. Of the four of us, it’s me to go first and I find myself sitting on the edge, my legs tucked under the fuselage, and before I know it, my tandem has pushed us into space and we are in free fall for the next 45 seconds or seemingly a lifetime, cold on the face but also trying to smile whilst being filmed by a second skydiver. All of a sudden my tandem pulls the cord and I feel a massive jolt in the nether regions as we decelerate rapidly and then spend the next six minutes gently floating down to a safe and gentle landing.

After lots of photos are taken of the relieved and happy foursome it’s back into the car for the drive home. Shall I wear my seatbelt? I’d better, the next 45 minutes is far riskier than jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane.



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