AFTER several false starts due to bad weather, 78-year-old Liam Cunningham finally got to jump out of a plane last Friday for his fundraising skydive where he has raised almost €7,000 for the Teddies For Loving Care (TLC) charity.
The Crosshaven native, who now lives in Bantry and is a member of the Freemason Lodge in Skibbereen, had originally been scheduled to take to the skies for a 13,000 ft tandem parachute jump on April 13th but this was postponed twice until he finally got the green light from the Irish Parachute Club in Offaly last Friday.
Speaking to The Southern Star, Liam said it was absolutely brilliant experience – but he won’t be doing it again!
‘There were 12 of us in the plane and Darren who I was strapped onto shuffled me forward and told me to sit on the floor with my legs out. The next thing I knew I was looking back up at the underside of the plane,’ said Liam.
‘Withing 10 seconds we were doing 120 miles an hour straight down for the next 40 to 50 seconds. It was unreal to be honest. Once the parachute was pulled it felt almost silent and I got a full 360 view of the sky and the land below.’
Liam is delighted that he exceeded his target of raising €2,500 and has so far raised €6,762 through his GoFundMe page for the charity which he has been involved with for the past 12 years. During that time he has delivered teddy bears to hospitals across the Cork region including Bantry and CUH.
‘This will mean almost 2,000 teddy bears for children in the various hospitals and that’s what it’s all about.’
He added that the GoFundMe page remain open for another month so is hopeful of raising even more money.
See ‘Jump For Teddies’ on GoFundMe.
