There is no going back! It is done…..the confirmation has been made and the deposit has been paid!

On Sunday 30 June, I will be taking off in a plane somewhere in Kent and (unless I bottle it in which case I will justifiably be subjected to the most severe ribbing of my life) will then jump out of it somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 feet above the ground with another person and a big bag strapped to my back.

I won’t pretend that I’m not a little nervous, scared even. Just the booking process was enough to make me feel a little uneasy, but the fact is I’m going to do it and because I’ll be doing it with a group of friends and colleagues it will be that much easier and more enjoyable….that and the fact that they’re all more scared than I am of course (you should have heard some of the excuses they were preparing for why they might not be able to do it on the day).

 
So there you go. The date’s in place. The location is sorted. The deposit’s paid.  All that’s left to do now is start the fundraising – details to follow – and start the training, how do you train for a parachute jump. As far as I know I’m pretty good at jumping and gravity will take care of the rest.

Breaking news....

My brother works for ITN, I blame him. That's when it hit me for the first time.  It was a Sunday evening and I had popped in to see him at work. Any of you familiar with ITN's head office on Grey's Inn Road will be familiar with the multi-floor atrium that falls through the middle of it. 

There we were doing the obligatory tour of the building and up we went to the top floor, the highest point, furthest from the ground and the the platform for the longest drop. That's when it crept up on me. As I stood there at the edge of the balcony a little thought worked its way into my head "Ben, there's nobody about, you could easily climb over that balcony.....so what's stopping you?" and since that day that thought has remained with me.

The point is that I realised I could if I wanted to, nothing was stoppjng me....of course I didn't do it, I certainly wouldn't be writing this, but I did realise that I could if I wanted to. So for years I kept that to myself, understandably I thought it made me a bit weird (strangely the story comes back to Grey's Inn Road but more of that later) but from that day I always wanted to see if I would or could do it!

I have a fear of heights......so I'm going to strap a bag to my back and jump out of a plane.  To be more specific I'm going to strap myself to another person who has a bag strapped to their back but you get the idea.

And to be even more specific, it's not that I have a fear of heights per se, more that I have a fear of voluntarily jumping from a great height. If I'm in an enclosed space it doesn't matter how I high up I am I'm fine, but put me somewhere above sea level and out in the open then I've often felt the urge to jump, not for any other reason that because I can.

So I'm sure you can see my logic - I get the irrational feeling to jump from a height so what better way to test the theory that to give it a go.

This is my story of how me and my colleagues @kat_echo @1CarinaMorris are planning on taking to the skies in June and then jumping out to raise money for @SSChospices. I aim to share with you the build up to the big event but by talking about it I also hope to help to come to terms with what we're going to do.

So watch this space and I'll keep you posted on progress.