Monday, August 16, 2010

Roma jumps for Niall Mellon Trust

Yesterday - my wife Roma jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet to raise money for the Niall Mellon Trust! Roma is planning to go to South Africa in November with the Trust to help built some houses in the townships, and is raising money for this very worthy cause.

The jump took place at the Irish Parachute Club in Clonbullogue (about 5 miles south of Edenderry in Co Offaly). Yesterday was a very clear and warm day - probably the best day of the summer. Perfect conditions for the parachutists, and for us viewing from the safe position of having our feet firmly planted on the ground. Roma's companion in both fund-raising and making the jump was Gary Walker of Clonmel Healthcare who is very kindly contributing any funds he raises to Roma and the NM Trust (and he is a very good fund-raiser!).
We were kept waiting for about an hour - Roma and Gary's group were about the fourth to take off. This was good in the sense that they could see other parachutists doing the same jump that they were about to do, and landing safely. I had my camera and got just a few photos (it was difficult trying to focus on tiny dots in the sky - I got some nice ones of the wrong person). The first photo above was very close to landing - hence Roma's (elegant) preparation for landing with her feet up! From take-off to landing was almost exactly 20 minutes - the second photo above was of a jubilant Roma with John to whom she was harnessed to for the jump. Gary is in the background - equally jubilant after his jump. Both Roma and Gary were very much on an adrenalin high!

Afterwords they relived every second over a well earned beer and sandwich in the Athgarvan Inn near The Curragh. Next fund-raising event for Roma is a more sedate Coffee Morning - if any of my readers would like to contribute to her fund (all small, medium, or even large donations welcome), she can be contacted at Monkstown Pharmacy (01-2805693), or via email: "monkstownpharmacy att gmail fullstop com" (you can figure it out).

Way to go Roma!

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