I must clearly have caught some kind of mad-cow-disease as I have agreed to take part in a charity skydive, organised through my firm.
On Thursday 9th September I'll get strapped onto a stranger, board a flimsy propeller plane with a plastic foil instead of a door and at 15,000 feet jump out, praying that the parachute - attached to the stranger on my back - will open without any problems and bring us safely back down to earth.
Well, I'm not simply doing this to prove my apparent insanity but actually for a good cause or rather two in this case. We are collecting money for London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and for the UNICEF Pakistan Flood Children's Appeal, please find some more information on both below.
I would be very grateful if you decided to sponsor me on this endeavour and donate some money by either using one of the below provided links to our fundraising pages or give me the cash stating which charity you'd like to support and we will forward it accordingly. No amount is too small, every Pound/Euro/Dollar will be appreciated!
I will share my photos and videos with you afterwards. Yes, a cameraman will join us on our fall as well, this might actually double my chance of survival, having another professional skydiver up there with me. These two guys will surely be my two best friends in the whole wide world for those 20/25 minutes of flight and fall! I suppose a Red Bull beforehand wouldn't go amiss either, apparently it gives you wings...
Please be as generous as possible. Thanks so much in advance!
http://www.justgiving.com/jordansjumpers
http://www.unicef.org.uk/myfundraising/ViewFundraiser.aspx?web=Jordans_Jumpers
Cleary Gottlieb Children's Charities Parachute Jump
A sequence of events, not least the tragedy unfolding in Pakistan, led us to decide to do a charity parachute jump.
The inspiration for the first jump in 2002 was Jordan and our colleague Terrie. Many of you will know that Jordan suffers from Muscular Dystrophy. The connection between this and our first charity, The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), might not at first be entirely clear. His fantastic Mum explains:
"As you know Jordan has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and he has been going to and from GOSH for the last 11 years now (he is almost 16). He recently had an operation on both Achilles tendons to have them released in order to get his feet back into a right angle position. Where the muscles had started to waste they put both feet out of alignment and they were so twisted he couldn't even keep his feet on his footplates of his wheelchair. If he hadn't had the operation his legs would have also twisted and then eventually his spine.
GOSH have supported us all as a family for almost 11 years now and nothing is ever too much trouble. If I ever have any concerns they are always there at the end of the phone."
Need I say more?
Information on GOSH can be found at: http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/about_gosh/
Information on DMD can be found at:http://www.muscular-dystrophy.org/about_muscular_dystrophy/conditions/97_duchenne_muscular_dystrophy
You only have to open a newspaper or turn on the television to understand that the situation in Pakistan is serious and rapidly becoming worse. The number of people reported as being affected by floods is rising by hundreds of thousands each day, many of these are children. Current estimates are that one and a half million children are currently being directly affected. Without being there it's impossible to understand their suffering and misery. We are all so very, very lucky. UNICEF work to protect the interests of children throughout the world. Because of the magnitude of the disaster in Pakistan they have mounted an emergency appeal to fund their operations on the ground. They receive no money from the Disaster Emergencies Committee (DEC) or the United Nations budget and rely solely on voluntary donations to fund its emergency work.
Information on the UNICEF Pakistan Flood Children's Appeal can be found at: http://www.unicef.org.uk/emergency/emergency_detail.asp?emergency=66&nodeid=e66
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