Engineers Swap Hard Hats for Heady Heights

12th August 2015

A pair of intrepid engineering employees from Sheffield Forgemasters swapped hard hats for heady heights to bravely undertake a 10,000 feet sky-dive for charity.

Akila Khan, a 21-year-old Technical Administrator from Sheffield Forgemasters RD26 Ltd and 23-year-old Foundry Welder, Sam Bailey, from Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd, travelled to North London Skydiving Centre to undertake the 1.89 mile-high jump to raise money for Cancer Research UK. The duo has pledged to raise £600 for their chosen charity and with funds still rolling in, they are now just £70 off their target after covering the costs of the jump from their own pockets. Akila said: -We had never done a sky-dive before and after trying other charitable races and more normal fundraising challenges, we wanted to really push ourselves to do something different and exciting. -I was the first one in line to jump out and Sam followed closely behind. Sitting on the edge of the plane waiting to fall out was terrifying, but once you're out of the aircraft you just relax into it and begin to enjoy it. The freefall was amazing; I'll never forget the feeling or the view! -We chose to raise funds for Cancer Research UK because everybody knows someone who has lived with cancer and with enough funds there's a possibility that one day it will be a disease that can be overcome entirely. We're very thankful to all those who have donated and supported us, it made the experience even more worthwhile knowing the money we raised would be going to a good cause. -We were told that quite a lot of people use part of the sponsor money to fund their skydive as it's quite expensive. We decided it would be better to pay for it ourselves so that every penny donated will go straight to the charity. Akila and Sam are still collecting for Cancer Research UK and donations can be made via their Just Giving website: www.justgiving.com/JUMP4LIFE-AK-SB/ or you can text AKSB80 and the amount you wish to donate (e.g. 'AKSB80 £5') to 70070.