By Ann Orton Faculty Member

With enormous efforts on the part of seven gutsy businesswomen and all those in support, the tandem skydive for Breakthrough Breast Cancer raised more than £160,000 and counting!  Flight 002 of The Booby Birds eventually took to the air on Saturday 3 September – not without drama, as we waited for four hours for the cloud to clear.  We were a breath away from a third postponement.

And the flight itself – well, it’s almost impossible to describe the experience of free-fall for about a minute and five or six with the parachute!  But here goes.  First you dress up in a magenta pink flying suit (not my colour but I grew to like it and went to Heathrow to pick up a friend still dressed that way – I was very tight on time – and got the appropriate reaction!) and a not-wildly-comfortable harness, helmet and goggles.  Then you join your flying partner (Si is from the military and has 1,500 flights logged and lots besides) and get into a plane with a very large hole rather than a door (as a friend on the ground commented rather anxiously).  Inside you sit in jumping order (we were 4 of 4), on the lap of your flying partner (yes, there are lots of ribald jokes to break the tension) strapped tightly at shoulder and hip.  When your turn comes you waddle over to the door where your partner sits on the edge and you hang out in fresh air, and find yourself launched into the air almost instantaneously, alongside the camera guy jumping with you (a digital SLR and a video camera attached to his helmet).  There is a first millisecond of being horizontal to the ground looking directly downwards when you realise just how very, very, very high up 10,500ft really is (the only moment I felt any anxiety)!  And that you are falling!!!  You eventually reach about 120mph so keeping your mouth shut helps avoid looking as though you have eaten all the cakes.  But you do have to remember to smile for the cameras!  And then, very quickly it seems, there’s the jerk of the parachute releasing, a more upright position, and glorious quiet – this must be the closest one gets to being a bird flying.  We zoom around (yes, I try steering), enjoy the view and the other flyers below, spot the crowd on the ground and chat as we fly. Then, all too soon, there is the instruction to raise your knees, then extend your legs (I can be very compliant when I need to be!), and Si takes control of the safe landing.  And it’s all over!

I would have flown again immediately given the chance.  I loved it!  It was challenging, exhilarating, awe-inspiring, and an extraordinary experience.  After such a challenge, the seven of us felt we had known one another for ever.  There was a huge surge of emotion on our safe return with a sombre reflection of the challenging journey faced by those with breast cancer.  

My heartfelt thanks to you all for your wonderful support.    

There’ll be more shortly on my fundraising page at www.VirginMoneyGiving.com and enter Ann Orton under ‘find a friend’.  And we’re looking for volunteers for Flight 003!

Photos: Credit Stephen Simpson/LNP © licensed to London News Pictures. Wallingford, UK. 03/09/11.  

By Ann Orton – Faculty Member

Well, dear reader – I’ve made it!  As in reached my commitment to raise £20,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer before the informal deadline of 31 July (the financial year end for Breakthrough).  Thanks to the wonderful generosity of family, friends, colleagues and the broader Meyler Campbell community we’ve achieved something pretty amazing in the current climate. There are another few weeks before the skydive on 28 August (this time with a back-up date of 3 September!).  And now of course I want to raise more!  Which triggered a thought about ever developing goals:  we ask our clients to commit to goals for their overall coaching and then to define specific goals for each coaching session within the coaching programme.  But how often do or should those overall goals change?  What is our role as coach in helping clients to take on additional challenges or stretch goals as they make progress, increase self-awareness and gain insight?  What more might our clients achieve if they reach for the skies?

The variable that can’t be controlled – the weather!  Yesterday late afternoon, Breakthrough Breast Cancer advised the seven intrepid pink jumpers that the jump is off for this Saturday.

With particularly stringent rules for tandem skydiving and a forecast of cloud with a very strong likelihood of rain, we are grounded – well, until later!  After strenuous efforts on doodle.com in anticipation of this possibility, we’ve a new date of Sunday 28 August with a back-up of Saturday 3 September. You try getting seven business women to agree a date when it’s summer and holiday period too!

So I’m shedding adrenalin and looking at the positive:  more time to reach my commitment of £20,000 for this very important cause by 31 July (for Breakthrough’s financial year end).  I’m building on an amazing total of more that £10,000 (phew, reached the half-way mark with wonderful support from colleagues, friends and family) with other donations already committed and plans for local fundraising.  And there is still time to help – and every penny is vital and much appreciated.  Onwards and (eventually) upwards!

By Ann Orton, Faculty Member

I’ve just been on an inspirational tour of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the Institute for Cancer Research, next to The Royal Marsden on Fulham Road, with other ‘pink jumpers’ for this year and led by the head of research, Prof Clare Isacke (who did the sky dive last year!).  The research tagline is ‘from bench to bedside’ and they are already proving that targeted research can shorten the time and expense associated with taking a drug from research through clinic trails to release.  It’s a buzzy, focused place full of young international scientists wanting to make a difference.  And an education to us all on the costs involved.

Here’s how your donations to my sky dive can make a huge difference to the work of the centre (one of four in the UK):

• £5 for the eye-shields  protecting a scientist from the chemicals they use
• £15 for the cell culture medium  used to grow cancer cells in the laboratory for the research  investigations
• £55 for ten boxes of filter  pipette tips to accurately draw up small amounts of liquid while  protecting the sample from contamination
• £115 for a DNA isolation kit  which provides the reagents needed to separate the DNA from 50 different  blood samples and the big one
• £100,000 for the robot we saw  in operation that automates experiments on the effect of known drugs  in combination with a recent breakthrough, producing consistent  experiments in a sterile environment – experiments which would take years  done by people! (Check out http://www.breakthroughresearch.org.uk/! )

So every contribution you make is important in ensuring that we free people from the fear of breast cancer.  I’m off to see my sister and family in Australia for three weeks - I hope to be surprised and delighted by the state on my fundraising when I return for the last stretch before the big day. Thank you!

By Ann Orton, Faculty Member

How has time passed so quickly?  I’m now in the last week or so of working before heading to Australia for a three week break with my sister and family.  It’s more than two years since I’ve visited so I’ll meet a new grand-niece and see vast changes in the three (two boys and one girl) I’ve met before.

Things are progressing well on the pink jump with my fundraising at £5,357.60 (and that’s not counting the gift aid) thanks to the generosity and support of friends, colleagues, coaching clients, syndicate members and members of the Meyler Campbell community.  And I’ve had lots of ‘of course I will support you’ messages too which will come to fruition in their own time. Meyler Campbell’s charity committee is up and running too, so there’s new energy and announcements to come!  Once I’m back I’ll concentrate on local fundraising mode with plans for coffee mornings, sales, local collecting boxes and so on.  I will get there I know, and so far anxiety about the jump itself is way at the back of my mind compared with the fundraising.  To reinforce the reason for all this, Breakthrough has organised a tour of their London research facility next week, which will spur me on.  And – six (or fewer) degrees of separation and all that – a close friend knows the head of research!

Thanks for reading this and for all your support!

By Ann Orton, Faculty Member

Launch day for my fundraising page and a flurry of activity.  My sister, Sheila, in Australia, has agreed to be the first person to contribute and at £100 – the advice of the Virgin Money Fundraising team is to have the first person make a generous contribution to encourage others.  But it comes at a price – she will expect a similar donation for her favourite charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind (she ‘puppy-walks’ during the first year of training, preparing gorgeous Labradors for more specific training if they get through stringent tests) when I visit in April / May.  ‘No worries’ seems the appropriate response!

Anne Scoular and the faculty / team at Meyler Campbell have promised to help, which seems particularly appropriate as it is through Catherine Devitt, a participant in my very first syndicate in 96 who persuaded me into it!  My coaching colleagues / friends at The Alliance are already on the case with encouraging words, technical support on email signatures and weblinks, and additional suggestions for fundraising.  And at the end of the day my fundraising page shows £575 plus Gift Aid – truly amazing.  Thank you everyone!  The slight problem is that I cry or tear-up whenever I see a donation and the wonderful words of encouragement. Perhaps as well that tears are supposed to be good for you!