Fundraisers of the month father and son sky dive for MS-UK!

Meet Ian and Barnaby, our fundraisers of the month! This father and son duo took on the thrilling challenge of jumping out of a plane from 15,000ft. Ian lives with multiple sclerosis and is determined that his condition won’t define who he is. Ian’s son, Barnaby, also took to the sky in support of his dad. Between the pair, they have raised over £2000 for MS-UK! Ian tells us all about it…

After an early rise we both set off for our epic adventure on Sunday 15 October, a chilly morning with ice on the car. My son Barnaby and I were on our way to do a 15,000ft tandem sky dive for MS-UK.

I have secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), and, in a moment of madness, I registered to do a tandem sky dive for the charity. After asking Barnaby to help with the social media side of things, I mentioned to him that it would be easier if he just joined me on the day, to which he obliged, although not without a bit of apprehension.

Having agreed to support MS-UK, Barnaby and I set about raising sponsorship, hoping to raise £500 and £1,000 respectively.

When I was diagnosed with MS, I decided that I wasn’t going to let the condition define my life, so I joined a local gym, also a Pilates class, had oxygen therapy, and volunteered at a local charity shop two or three times a week. I has also enrolled at my local College to redo my GCSE in maths, along with attending Slimming World! So to do a skydive was just another string to my bow.

With attending so many groups, it was fairly easy to ask members to sponsor me, which they all did willingly. I regularly visit a nearby café, and they agreed to have a poster put up and also collect sponsorships. It was a similar story at my local pharmacy, who displayed my poster behind the counter, again collecting monies given.

I would encourage others to help MS-UK raise funds. A key benefit was to get out and talk to others and tell them how MS affects your life and that you are going to fight it.

My story inspired a few people to sponsor me even though they didn’t know me.

To date sponsorship stands at £1,000 for Ian with monies still to collect of around £200, and £680 for Barnaby.