Skydive is done and nearly £10k raised!

Last Thursday, 11 members of Faiths Act London hurtled 13,000 ft for Malaria No More UK. I decided to include myself in that list, and was given an experience that won’t slip my mind in a hurry.

Malaria No More gathered famous faces and teams from various different organisations, including Samantha Fox, Stuart Manning, Jimmie White, News International, and Jazz FM. In that group of 60 people was Team Faiths Act. Each skydiver was tasked with raising £750 for the charity, and by the time of the event, the total was a staggering yet still even now increasing £9.055.60 incl. Gift Aid (all of which will be personally matched by Tony Blair). For the past couple of months, the team launched themselves into reaching their targets through cake sales, sponsored silences, quizzes, proceeds from cinema showings, and harassment of friends and family. There was enormous effort put into the fundraising and Nadeem and I were extremely impressed by the results, and really appreciative of the team’s friends and family for showing such willingness to support them.

While a day of enjoyment, sunshine and charity, it also became the day that I realised I wasn’t quite the adrenaline junkie I previously thought. Sauntering towards the plane with a slightly ridiculous John Wayne-type strut (the harness’ fault), I was more than ready to pull out my picture-perfect Superman poses as I gracefully flew through the air. I had not one ounce of fear in my mind - that is, right up until when the airplane door was open, my goggles were put on, and I prepared to jump. I distinctly remember looking over the edge, thinking bed nets really weren’t worth what looked like suicide, and decided returning to my seat and contently cruising back towards normality seemed the best option. Nevertheless, I was devoid of any freewill and being strapped to an instructor I found myself being dragged towards a place where humans aren’t naturally built for. I began to scream, and didn’t stop until the parachute was deployed. After the nightmare of a freefall however, the experience was metamorphosed into an oddly relaxing five minutes, and I couldn’t help thinking Cheryl Cole choose wrongly in foregoing her parachute. As we cruised towards sweet solid ground, my tandem diver, Mike, put on his mid-flight-Oxford-countryside-tour-guide hat. I landed feeling pretty informed about the area, if a tad windswept and pale in the face. Quite an experience. Maybe one I won’t repeat though.

Despite my pre-jump ponderings about the worth of a bed net, malaria can and must be stopped by efforts including our own, and 11 Faiths Act-ers were more than willing to demonstrate this. It’s testament to the fact that having different faiths doesn’t have to get in the way of us not acting together or getting to know one another, indeed it can often be a way of strongly uniting us in common action despite differences. What can be more visually clarifying than seeing a plane of Muslims, Christians and Jews heading upwards, ready to launched into the air, all because each of them believe they have a responsibility to prevent the injustice arising from an entirely preventable disease?

Nicola Minford, Faiths Act Fellow