DARING fund raisers took a leap of faith and raised nearly £30,000 for a Kenton hospice.

39 people took part in St Luke’s sky dive challenge and raised a total of £27,300.

The supporters of the hospice jumped out of a place at 13,000 feet at Hinton Airfield in Northamptonshire on Saturday and Sunday.

St Luke’s former interim-CEO, Robert Creighton took part and said: “It was a thrilling experience to do a sky dive for St Luke’s, and to do it with my wife and two daughters too. There was a large group of St Luke’s supporters at the site so there was a great atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm. The jump itself was hugely exhilarating, and astonishingly not nearly as alarming as expected. We were clamped to instructors who were all highly professional and had done literally thousands of such jumps before, so we felt complete confidence at all times. I was delighted to mark the end of my time at the hospice in this way, and to raise some money to help maintain the excellent services here that support so many people locally at the end of their lives.’

Members of the new Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Kingsbury raised £14,000 collectively. 

Cheryl Nankoo,38, lives in Harrow and took the plunge.

She said: “St Luke’s did such a wonderful job in caring for my best friend’s brother, Antonio Perera during the last few weeks of his life, that we wanted to do something to raise money for the hospice and jump in his memory. It’s an amazing experience and the skydiving team do a great job to make you feel safe and at ease. That moment when the parachute goes up and there is complete silence as you float down is truly breathtaking. There was a rainbow that appeared on the day Antonio Perera died in January. On the day of the sky dive as Michael and I went up in the plane a beautiful rainbow appeared. We like to think that Antonio sent the rainbow to us to let his us know that he was happy that we were supporting the charity that made his last few days on earth peaceful.”

If you would like to take this challenge for the hospice in September go to www.stlukes-hospice.org/sky dive or phone Marlon on 020 8382 8056.