
Nurses above: Ruth Wise and Michaela Perry
St Margaret’s takes part in an annual, exhilarating skydiving event inviting anyone over 16* years old to participate in and to fundraise for the hospice. This year on Sunday, 18 August the theme is to dress up as your favourite superhero. And whilst the hospice team members are superheroes in the minds of many hospice patients, they are losing their scrubs in favour of superhero costumes.
This year, six of our nurses, are taking their dedication to new heights, literally, by getting together to take part in the sky dive collectively as a team.
Nurse, Michaela Perry talked about how this fundraising initiative came to their attention, saying, “I’ve always wanted to do a skydive and it just felt right. And, when our Healthcare Assistant, Ruth Wise, asked me to do it, I thought wow, it’s perfect because I work here at St Margaret’s, so it’s great to be able to jump to raise money for the place you work! It would be nice to be able to do something for them to raise money and you go with your colleagues, rather than just doing it on your own. It’s an honour”.
Together all our skydiving nurses have worked for St Margaret’s for over 27 years. Michaela highlighted the unique support system created by jumping with friends “If you’re not quite sure about whether to sign up, what is special is that your colleagues will be there backing you up the whole way. You’ve got more encouragement than if you jumped on your own. It can be quite a challenging thing jumping out of a plane, so doing it all together gives you excellent support, trust and backing.”
Ruth Wise, initiated and encouraged the five other team members to join her said, “It just sounds like so much fun. You see people doing it on the TV all the time and they describe the amazing feeling of falling through the air. It’s quite an unnatural thing free falling from 15,000 but what an achievement once it’s done. It’s a once in a lifetime thing for me, I know I want the jump to go quickly. However, when my feet reach the ground, I know I’ll be so proud and I’ll no doubt want to do it all over again!”
A significant motivation behind their leap is the tangible impact of the funds raised. Ruth explained, “Also, a big incentive is the difference the money raised will make. If each of us raises the minimum sponsorship amount of £395 and an extra £100 on top, we could buy a new Oska Chair (an Oska chair is designed to offer extreme patient comfort and pressure relief, whilst being easy to manoeuvre by health care staff) for the In-Patient Unit. To be able to see the difference our fundraising would make day in, and day out at the hospice is a huge incentive”.
Michaela added “To be able to think of all the patients and what you’re doing it for will help get rid of any anxious thoughts and I know I’ll be okay. Once the parachutes are out and you’re floating down, it’s like, this is okay, and I’ve raised all this money alongside it.”
Whether you’re Iron Man or Wonder Woman, no previous experience is necessary and if you fancy joining our nurses and becoming a superhero for St Margaret’s, whilst ticking off an experience on your own bucket list, sign up here!
*Under 18s must have consent from a parent or guardian.
