The Great Leap of Faith!

	Sponsored Sky-Dive a great success

The 13 brave souls - pictured shortly before they took the plunge

The Sol Times Sky Dive on 25th June, jointly in aid of PAWS and the MACS Cancer Charity, raised a whopping €3,250. Given that each participant had to raise an initial €295 to cover the cost of the training and the actual jump itself, that total represents a real achievement by all who took part.

Thirteen people threw themselves trustingly into space from a height of 13,000 feet on a wing and a prayer ... and of course a parachute and and an experienced instructor harnessed alongside to make sure nothing went wrong. They all survived unscathed to tell the tale - even if some took considerably longer to "come down" than the actual duration of the jump.

The event was the brainchild of Sol Times Advertising Manager Claire McGrath (third left, above), who described herself as "having had a ball, but I've still got the shakes 24 hours later." Claire had worked before with Steve Carrington of Dolphin Solutions (extreme right) the company who who run the courses and facilitate the dives, so when PAWS went into financial difficulties in March she immediately thought of a way she could help. Sol Times immediately climbed on board and gave the event non-stop publicity.

There were too many individual tales of adventure to tell here, but the selection of photos below (taken by Richard Davies) tell their own stories.

Serge Dewrée - " .. a bit overexcited as the adrenalin kicked in on a successful landing!"	Leanne Kelly and Jessica Wooley - all fired up and ready to go.	Organiser Claire McGrath and boyfriend Scott ("Subbers") - no qualms on their way to the aeroplane!

PAWS own star performer - 'Catwoman' Julie Gladman!

Determined not just to let others experience all the thrills, Julie Gladman (below)- a volunteer with the PAWS Cat Team - signed up for the jump. Not only did she complete the course, she turned out to be a star fundraiser, contributing an impressive €850 to the total to be divided between the two charities. With her feet barely back on terra firma, Julie pronounced the whole experience as "FANTASTIC, I would do it again in a heartbeat!"

Julie with 'dive buddy' Damian Benbow, very happy after declaring Mission Accomplished	Julie gets a well-deserved round of applause from supporters and fellow sky-divers.	Everybody's favourite instructor, Raul - "Cool, or what!"

Julie writes: "There was never one moment that I even questioned going through with it, never felt nervous, no sleepless nights, no tummy flips, not even on the way up in the tiny little plane leading to the jump, or even looking out of the open door waiting to swing my legs over the edge and take the plunge. There was not one single second that I did not enjoy.

Without a doubt the best part was the freefall. They told us that the instructor would tap us on the shoulder to open our arms and assume the free fall position. It seems like an easy thing to remember. However, when your falling at however many meters a second and looking at the world from a birds eye view, you just don't feel a tap (well I didn't) I had to have both arms hauled out! The only bad part of the freefall was that it didn't last nearly long enough!.

When the chute opened the view was fantastic, the instructor spun us round one way, then the other.... like being at the fairground. Still no tummy flips ... then floated us down for an almost perfect landing (just accumulated a little dust on my rear end) right in front of everyone back at the airfield. The stupid grin was still on my face, and it lasted for about a week after the dive had been done. All in all the best experience ever, would recommend anyone to try it if they ever got the chance and a very good way of raising money for my favourite charity. I would like to thank everyone who supported me and the rest of the team."

Watch the video of Julie's sky-dive below

Julie's sky-dive from Mike Dornan on Vimeo.