"I am petrified..." Team at Woking & Sam Beare Hospice set to take to the skies in skydiving challenge.

One of the skydivers will be doing the dive to celebrate her upcoming 80th birthday.

(from left to right) Sam Wakefield, Sam Jones and Felicity Edwards from Woking and Sam Beare Hospice will be taking on the dive.
Author: Alex DukePublished 4th Oct 2023

A team of staff and fundraisers at Woking & Sam Beare Hospice will be taking to the skies on Friday 6th of October to take part in a skydive.

27 people are signed up to take part in the dive, and over £15,000 has been raised ahead of the event, surpassing their £10,000 target.

One of the people who will be jumping is Valerie Hitchcock, who's celebrating her upcoming 80th birthday slightly unusually by taking the plunge.

"I'm petrified of heights, so I went for a skydive."

Valerie said she's doing the dive in honour of three members of her family "my daughter, her dad and my second husband" who were all looked after by the hospice.

Challenge events manager at the Hospice Sam Wakefield said "Managing challenge events you meet so many wonderful people that do amazing, extraordinary things - so I thought I should do something myself. I'm petrified of heights, so I went for a skydive."

"I'm excited to be doing it with the team... but I am petrified."

Sam Jones, who's the community fundraiser for the hospice, has a personal connection to the Woking-based charity.

"I've always wanted to do something for the hospice, I've worked here for some time. It's because my best friend passed away here nearly six years ago.

"For me, I'm skydiving in her memory. The hospice took such great care of her, it's very very close to my heart."

Felicity Edwards, who works at the hospice as an events manager, said "It's just a fantastic way of working with the team... but also to do something amazing to help the clinical staff that are working to help people out there in the community every single day."

Woking & Sam Beare Hospice delivers 8,760 hours of care and support and cares for approximately 2000 patients each year.

You can click here if you'd like to donate.

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