Skydive Heroes ‘Dare for the Wild’

The eleven plucky jumpers were taking part in Horsham charity Care for the Wild’s inaugural Dare for the Wild Skydive, and between them they raised £2000 to help the charity’s projects.

Philip Mansbridge, CEO of Care for the Wild, said: “I’m immensely proud of all of them! it takes courage to throw yourself out of a plane, so to do it on behalf of wildlife which you’ll probably never see is a real act of kindness. Animals around the world are in real danger at the moment, so the impact our skydivers have had, both in the money and the awareness they have raised, is fantastic.”

Care for the Wild volunteer Tom Eveleigh, 31, from Crawley, helped organise the event, which was managed by GoSkyDive, and took the leap alongside his mum Heather, Uncle Paul, Cousin Josh, plus friends Karolina Gieczys, Claire Groves, Dan King and Sally Barlass.

“When I left my last job up in the city I was living a pretty self-centred life so I wanted to do something that meant a lot to me. It’ll be a real shame if I’m part of the generation that allows elephant, rhinos and tigers to become extinct and only things that people can see on repeats of David Attenborough programmes. They have the right to exist and we have the chance to stop something that seems inevitable. And if we don’t do it we’re complicit in it,” said Tom.

“The day of the jump was amazing, as part of me was worrying about ensuring everything went smoothly, and the other half was worrying about jumping out of a plane! Then my mum suddenly decided she wanted to jump from higher than everyone else…so of course I had to do that too! I’ve got to say I was very nervous, but I did it, and so did everyone else – it was amazing!

The Masons – Jimmy, 57, Luke, 26 and Christopher, 22 – were also roped into the event by a Care for the Wild volunteer: mum of the family Rachel.

“I started volunteering for Care for the Wild just under a year ago. I have always been an animal lover and cared greatly for their welfare so I was happy to help in any way I can, or in this case my family were!” said Rachel.

The money raised by the Dare for the Wild Skydivers will go towards helping animals at projects around the world . If you would like to help Care for the Wild help animals, there are plenty of ways to do it – you don’t have to jump out of a plane! Take a look at Care for the Wild’s Dare for the Wild page.

Report and picture contributed by Care for the Wild.