h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have collected on the streets before for a charity with which my mother is involved. That's not fun, to be honest. However, I did a sponsored skydive last year.

It was the most selfish fundraising event I've ever been involved in, 'cos in the end raising the money was incidental to how much fun I had - both doing it and talking about it!

If ever anyone thinks about doing this - DO IT! It's amazing!

I'd second that - I've done three!

I even got the last one videoed...

What a rush eh?

I heard that for every pound that's raised in a charity parachute jump, the NHS has to spend £14 patching up the parachutists. I am a sport parachutist with a few dozen jumps so far. Despite visiting various different drop zones, transitioning to free-fall and trying out different equipment, no jump was ever as dangerous as my first. I received good instruction but the first time you go out of the door, you know astoundingly little. No wonder so many 'one-off' jumpers get unnecessary injuries.

I've never done a charity jump, nor supported anybody who did, partly because I know that skydiving is great fun. Why should somebody who is about to enjoy a jump not pay for it? Too many fundraisers get just a few hundred pounds in sponsorship, which means that a very large chunk of the money they raise goes towards their training costs. And don't get me started on charity tandem jumps. Where's the point in that? You might as well sponsor a sack of spuds, put a parachute on it, and heave it out of the plane somewhere over Headcorn.

It's a fun sport, spoiled by the idea people seem to have, that it can be 'done' in a single day. Nobody would allow me to get away with saying that I had 'done' golf, because I once endured nine holes of pitch and putt, yet they are able to dismiss my chosen sport in this way.

Well, on the three occassions that I've jumped, I've not seen a single injury. You say that 'you heard' this - where from? A friend of a friend? The whole point about tandem skydives is that you are literally 'along for the ride' - you don't have to do *anything*.

>>>'Too many fundraisers get just a few hundred pounds in sponsorship...'

Your point being? Every single penny that goes to charity helps. Yes, a large chunk of your sponsorship will go towards training costs, but if you've raised (at least) the amount needed to do it 'for free', a large chunk will also go to the charity concerned. If the charities weren't receiving enough money from ventures like this, why would they keep backing them?

But, with sponsored sky-dives and so on, some of the money that you raise from sponsorship from your friends goes to paying for the jump - which, IMO, is a bit deceptive. If you stump up the cash for the skydive yourself and then collect addidtional sponsorship money to give to charity that seems a bit fairer.

OH! how I remember that, It was a few years ago now, yet I recall it like it was yesterday. I had arranged sponsership, had all the forms filled in, the lot. All ready to go, to do my lifetimes ambition, a sky jump, for charity. Then with just ywo days to go, I was told that I would have to go through to Aberdeen instead of Inverness air port to do it. That was it cancelled for me, as the company I worked for had agreed to give me a half day off work to do it, and would not stretch it to a full day off. I was "gutted" and now that I know that I will never be able to do it, I feel that Ive missed out on "real life"
Smudger.