Christine Conquers Childhood Fear For Charity
A Bognor Regis businesswoman with a lifelong fear of heights threw caution to the wind with a charity sky dive from 12,000 feet!
Christine Wesson (58) hopes to raise more than £500 for Wessex Heartbeat when she took to the skies with the British Army's famous Red Devils Parachute Display Team.
She bit the bullet by doing a tandem sky dive at Airfield Camp, Netheravon, near Salisbury. Together with one of the team's instructors she was in freefall for 45 seconds at speeds of up to 120 mph and then rode under canopy for around four to five minutes. "It was great day, the sun was shining, and everything went as smoothly as possible. But when I jumped out of the plane I just kept staring straight ahead as I'm sure that if I had looked down my stomach would have turned over. Nathan, my Red Devil was really nice and supportive. He held my hand, that was the best bit, and he helped me to stay calm and enjoy every minute of the experience."
She added: "My children, Kimberley and Kelly are really proud of me - they didn't know their Mum was capable of sky diving. And when my ex-husband, Barry, heard what I'd done he said, "Bloody Hell when she was with me she wouldn't even dive into a swimming pool." I thought that was funny and it brought home to me how much I've changed and let go of my fears."
Christine, who has also walked on coals for charity said: " When I first got down on terra firma I thought ‘never again.' But now all I can think of now is, ‘what next?'" Christine, of Westingway, has been better placed than many people to prepare for conquering her phobia. She is a qualified clinical hypnotherapist and also an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner. "As part of my self-hypnosis strategy I had been telling myself that it was going to be fantastic and that I was going to have one of the best experiences of my life," she said.
Christine, who works from home, believed that her fear of heights stemmed from childhood. "My mother was always telling me never to go too near the edge, and consequently I had a horrible feeling when I got too near to the edge of anything," she said.
Christine has also successfully overcome her fear of water and public speaking through successful hypnotherapy techniques. She has been sponsored by friends, family and fellow members of the Chichester Chapter of Business Network International (BNI). "Some people thought I was absolutely mad to be attempting this, but I wanted to do something to raise money for Wessex Heartbeat, and I thought it was better than training for the next however many months to do a marathon - at least it got it over and done with in one fell swoop!"
Anybody who would still like to donate is asked to visit the website at http://justgiving.com/christinewesson
Wessex Heartbeat would also like to thank the other intrepid skydivers on the day including Lisa Palmer, Katie Crumpler, and Andy Drummond.
