Christine takes plunge and cures fear of heights

Christine Wesson decided the only way to get over her phobia was to don a parachute and jump from a plane.

She joined the British Army's Red Devils parachute display team at Netheravon, near Salisbury, for the life-changing experience.

The tandem skydive saw her freefall with one of the team's instructors for 45 seconds at up to 120mph and then ride under canopy for about four or five minutes.

By doing so, she has raised about 650 for the Wessex Heartbeat regional cardiac charity.

Christine, 58, of Westingway, said: "It was an absolutely fantastic experience. I never thought I would be able to do it."

She was better placed than many people to prepare for conquering her phobia. She is a qualified clinical hypnotherapist and an emotional freedom technique practitioner.

"As part of my self-hypnosis strategy, I told myself it's going to be fantastic and that I was going to have one of the best experiences of my life," she said.

Christine, who works from home, believed her fear of heights stemmed from childhood.

She explained: "My mother was always telling me never to go too near the edge. Consequently, I had a horrible feeling when I got too near the edge of anything."

Christine has also overcome her fear of water and public speaking through successful hypnotherapy techniques.

Her parachute jump was sponsored by friends, family and fellow members of the Chichester chapter of Business Network International.

"Some people thought I was absolutely mad to be attempting this," she said.

"But I wanted to do something to raise money for Wessex Heartbeat.

"At least it got it over and done with in one fell swoop '“ I thought it was better than training for the next however many months to do a marathon."

Wessex Heartbeat was set up in 1992 to enable the renowned Wessex Cardiac Centre in Southampton General Hospital to become and remain one of the UK's leading centres of excellence for cardiac care.

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