Daredevil team will skydive 15,000 feet for dementia charity

A LOCAL man will be jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet next month to raise funds for Dementia UK in memory of his mother. 

Andy Fry, along with his team – Andy’s sister Angela Lynch, and friends Mark O’Donovan, Roy Phelps, Dave Mitchell, Shaun Davidson, Mike Kelloway, Cormac Hanley, Colin Heath, and Simon Kennedy -will be doing the skydive on Saturday 29th June at Old Sarum in Salisbury. The event will also mark Andy’s 50th birthday.

Andy explained, “My partner asked what I wanted to do for my 50th’ and suggested that we could go to Center Parcs. I said, ‘I don’t want to do that!’ I’d had a few glasses of wine and then said that I would jump out of a plane. My oldest sister said she’d do it too and suggested that we raise money for Dementia UK in memory of mum, who died in 2022.”

So far, the team has raised around £1,000 for the charity that supports those living with dementia and their families.

“I keep looking at the sky and remembering that I am going to be twice the height of the clouds. You can see the curve of the earth when you are up there, it’s nearly two and a half, three miles up.”

Andy said he did a skydive around 21 years ago and back then, the highest you could go was 10,000 feet.

“It’s a 60-second freefall, travelling at 120 miles per hour,” explained Andy. “It’s all tandem jumps, so we will all be strapped to someone. I think everyone’s nervous. One of the guys is terrified because he’s terrified of heights. The day before, everyone is going to be nervous.”

“When I did it last time, I remember it’s so high up that your brain isn’t telling you you’re going to die, but it’s the best relief when you feel the parachute pull you back up.”

To support the team visit their Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/page/andyfryskydive?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fandyfryskydive&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share