At 12,000 feet up in the air, strapped firmly to her jump buddy and sitting with the plane door open, Lisa Barwick began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of doing a charity parachute jump.


It was however a little too late to change her mind ... luckily she lived to tell the tale.

Community centre

Lisa works as Centre Assistant at the Banstead Centre, a busy community centre for the active 50+ age group which is run as a partnership between Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and the Banstead Centre Committee.

Lisa was recently persuaded by her son Jack to do a sky dive to raise extra funds for the centre. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," she laughs.

All go

The big day arrived and it all started well with a detailed 45 minute briefing. Then there was a long wait until the weather cleared sufficiently.

Last minute nerves

"Eventually, I heard my name called and suddenly it was all go," recalls Lisa. "I was introduced to my tandem jump buddy who put me at my ease straight away and we made our way out to the plane - at this point I was quite calm and surprisingly looking forward to the experience."

"However, when we got to 12,000 feet and it was almost my turn to jump I really started to panic - all I could say over and over again to my jump buddy was 'oh my god, oh my god - are you absolutely sure I am attached to you?'

Freefall

"Then we jumped - and I screamed. We were in freefall for about 45 seconds travelling at around 120 miles an hour. It was cold and difficult to breath, but the adrenalin kick was incredible. My jump buddy then pulled the parachute cord and from then onwards it was beautiful and very peaceful, twisting and turning, gracefully falling to the ground. I felt like a bird.

"We landed safely and all I can say is it was absolutely amazing!"

Grand total