Daredevils raise £3,500 for charity in skydive stunt
Four brave colleagues from the Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals have raised thousands of pounds for charity by taking part in a daredevil skydive.
The brave volunteers – all members of the Resources Directorate at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) – took the plunge to raise money to purchase a Prostate Biopsy Machine for the Trust to help combat Prostate Cancer.
The team, made up of Martin Hall and Michael Darbhanga from the Finance team; Paul Corbett from Facilities and Derek Bolton from Estates, carried out their death-defying leap at Tilstock Airfield near Whitchurch, and raised around £3,500 in the process.
Derek Bolton, Head of Capital Projects at SaTH, who leaves the Trust this week, said: “It was such a brilliant experience; I loved every minute of it—although I didn’t tell my wife I was doing it until I was firmly back on the ground!
“Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men, but it is an area that often gets overlooked, which is why we decided to raise money for the department.”
Members of the Resources Directorate agreed last year to undertake a series of fundraising events as part of the SaTH’s “Our Commitments” campaign.
The Trust launched “Our Commitments” to give staff the chance to share ideas about improvements the Trust could make to benefit everyone.
The Resources Directorate committed to carry out more fundraising and community work in order to both showcase the work that the Directorate does, and to help staff in the various departments feel more connected to patient care.
Derek said: “We’ve talked about all sorts of fundraising ideas, and when the idea of a skydive came up, a number of us jumped at the chance.
“Some of us had it on our ‘bucket lists’, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfil a dream and raise money for a very good cause at the same time.”
