We all know someone affected by cancer. We’ve probably all lost someone to the many variants of the hideous disease. According to figures from Cancer Research UK, 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our lifetimes. Thankfully, due to the incredible work of the UK based charity, the number of people who survive it, has doubled in the last 40 years. As a charity, they were badly affected by the Covid pandemic and donations fell markedly, but with that becoming slightly less of an issue, it’s time for the fundraisers to step forwards again.
And this is where our own Megan Swanick stepped in, Megan, 29 has been with Kimpton for four years and has recently seen her own Mum recover from her own battle with cancer.
“I’d always wanted to do a parachute jump. Since I was little it’s been a dream of mine and raising money for cancer research, seemed like a win-win. When I mentioned it in the office, Phil Higham immediately stepped forward too. So we put it out to the whole team in June and by 14th August, eight of us were stepping into the back of a plane to jump out of it.”
The intrepid team from left to right were Rob Brine, Phil Higham, Megan Swanick, Callum Morgan, Ellie Jervis, Tony Ferguson, Keith Watts and Paul Cooper. Here they are, pictured below.
The location for the skydive was the Black Knights Parachute Centre in Cockerham, Lancashire. They offer three options of Tandem Freefall heights from 7,000ft to the highest in the UK at 15,000ft. Obviously, they opted for the biggest one, because why wouldn’t you? 😳
Speaking to Megan about the skydive she said “It was everything I thought it would be and more. When you jump out you’re above the clouds, so all you see is blue sky. It’s beautiful. Then you’re free-falling for the first 60 seconds or so, it doesn’t really feel like your falling, but when you’re being pelted with rain at 160mph as you fall through the cloud, you can certainly tell you’re moving quickly. The Instructors were protecting my face, without me even noticing. When you’re at your maximum speed, it’s actually quite hard to breathe, but the adrenalin is incredible.”
Each of the Kimpton team paid for their own parachute jump and the Just Giving page is ticking along nicely. If you’d like to donate a little yourself, it would be very, very welcome.
Back to Megan.
“We initially set ourselves a very low target of only £250, but when we passed the magic £1,000 it was a great feeling. It’s the sort of money that starts to make a difference. Obviously, we’d love it to be much more, so we’re keeping the donation page open for a few weeks yet. What has struck me is that there are no huge donations in there, it’s just lots of kind individuals reaching into their own pockets to help.
So the obvious question is what’s next?
“There were a few in the team who missed out due to holidays or illness, so I’m sure there will be another company outing to Black Knights sometime soon. For us, we have another challenge in mind, but all will be revealed soon. I’m not turning into a charity adrenalin junkie just yet, but the next one will be every bit as challenging and almost as fast.
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