11 Mar 2022 Community

Jade’s Skydiving Story

The Kirkwood are here for everyone across Kirklees, supporting patients and families from diagnosis to the end of life, and helping loved ones to deal with their grief in bereavement. Following the death of a loved one, many people choose to take on a challenge or raise funds in their memory.   

One such supporter was 21 year old Jade Alderson. Jade decided to take on the challenge last year following her father's death in 2017. Kevin Alderson, 56, suffered with a long term illness which included kidney and liver problems. He was supported by The Kirkwood right up to his death. 

On seeing The Kirkwood challenges in 2021 Jade's mum signed her up to complete the terrifying jump.  

Jade said: "My mum signed me up for it because she knew I'd been wanting to do a skydive for ages. If you do it off your own back it costs a lot of money to do, so raising money for The Kirkwood seemed like the perfect chance to combine the two.  

"I was quite surprised when she told me I was going to do it. I was really looking forward to it." 

As well as always wanting to take on a skydiving challenge, Jade explained why she was so passionate about raising funds for The Kirkwood in memory of her dad. 

"My dad passed away in 2017 due to a long term illness. The Kirkwood was there for us from the beginning, providing us with support which was great. They provided my mum with phone calls on a weekend after he'd passed away.  

"The Kirkwood has been a huge support to my family. It's great that you can speak to someone who is independent from you or your family and you can just offload on to them. I think it really helped us as a family for sure.  

"We went to one of The Kirkwood's coffee mornings and it was great to speak to people who had gone through the same things as us. In the moment, you just think these things are happening to you. But when you meet other people who have been through similar circumstances it makes you understand other people are going through stuff too.  

"The Kirkwood were more than just a support group; the people who are involved in The Kirkwood come across as good friends.  

"I also know quite a few people who have received support from The Kirkwood. I just thought it was a really good cause to raise money for."  

Despite being excited about her jump, the nerves started to kick in for Jade in the lead up getting in the plane. However she conquered her fears and courageously leapt from 15,000ft in memory of her dad. 

She said: "I was one of the last people to go up and because of the weather I was delayed by two hours. Then the nerves kicked in as I was just waiting around, and by the time I got up there and they opened the doors to jump I was didn’t think I would be able to do it.  

"When I was speaking to people on the day who had just done it they said 'I am never doing that again’. Which to be honest didn't help the nerves.  

"What was nice though was there was a lad about my age who was doing it too alongside me.  

"When I sat there ready to jump I wasn't emotional but what I was, was very proud. My family told me how much my dad would have loved to have seen me do it which was a great comfort. So knowing I was doing it for him was a real push for me to jump.  

"I was really happy when I landed, I feel like it was a real achievement as you have to have guts to do it. I love to tell people that I have jumped out of a plane at 15,000ft."  

Jade conquered her fears and made the perfect landing which would have made her dad proud just as it did her family, friends and everyone at The Kirkwood too. Whilst jumping out of the plane and raising an amazing £750 was a huge achievement, the achievement of helping us Support Life was just as rewarding. 

Jade encourages everyone thinking about taking on a challenge for The Kirkwood to pluck up the courage and sign up for a skydive.  

She simply said: "I would encourage anyone to sign up for the skydive as it's a once in a lifetime opportunity."