Real Life Stories

ukJames Eley

Story type: Fundraising

How would you fancy jumping out of an aeroplane at 13,000 feet with one of the Parachute Regiment’s famous Red Devils strapped to your back?

That’s just what three of my mates from Bradfield College, my dad, five of his work colleagues from Canon and I did in August 2011 – and it was awesome! We did the jump with the Red Devils who are seriously professional soldiers, all with stints in various dangerous places around the world – but they were also fantastic fun and were immensely reassuring.

We had a brilliant time, but even more important was raising money for Malaria No More UK

Around a minute of madly fantastic freefall was followed by a majestic float to ground exactly on the designated drop zone. The jump itself was filmed and photographed – appropriately enough, using Canon cameras – by amazingly talented skydivers who followed us all the way down. That really made us feel like celebrities!

We had a brilliant time, but even more important was raising money for Malaria No More UK. We chose this charity because we need to stamp out this terrible and unnecessary killer. We were hugely impressed by the ambition of the Malaria No More UK team and have decided to give a final boost our fundraising by donating all proceeds from the sale of my Mum’s old car to the charity. We and our sponsors know that, through Malaria No More UK, the money that we raised will really make a difference.

Inspired!? Find out more about doing a skydive.

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