Suddenly, my amazing, drunken, and very gay summer disappeared in a cloud of glitter. It was September and I was nowhere near my fundraising target. I started panicking but quickly realised that I have the best famigay in London (or maybe the world). They donated, helped me to collect money, and a few helped me to drum up support at their own events. This meant that I had to get on stage and talk sometimes which was very scary, and as this picture (taken at Blue Monday) shows, gave me a double chin.
The fundraising was hard work and served well to
distract me for a month from the fear of the jump itself. But before I
knew it, I was at the airfield and had been briefed on the correct
position one should assume when falling 140mph towards the ground. We
waited for hours and I felt sick and couldn’t eat. I saw lots of people
getting ready and climbing into the little plane which took them away,
but I didn’t notice them coming back. I was assured that they had
returned smiling but I wasn’t so sure that they weren’t splatted in the
field somewhere.And then, suddenly, the tannoy called “Sarah Lavender to the tandem area”. I thought I might go into cardiac arrest there and then. I tried to think of an escape route but my brain was too scared to function.
A man gave me a very 80’s looking jumpsuit which reminded me of Challenge Anneka. Another man with a camera started interviewing me but I was too busy feeling impending doom to give him any sensible answers. Then they bundled me into the plane and I felt even more scared. The instructor attached himself to me and I knew then that I had no way to escape.
The plane kept flying up for what seemed like forever. I kept having thoughts like, “what if I throw up on the instructor and it distracts him and he doesn’t get the parachute out in time?” or “what if I pass out because I didn’t eat and then I don’t do the correct positions and we die?” or “what if my shoes fall off and I lose my pretty Stonewall rainbow laces?”. I felt like I was going to faint in the plane. I thought that might be good because I might not have to do it. Then I thought that would be bad because the people who donated that money to Stonewall might want it back if I didn’t do the jump.
Finally, the instructor told me that we were at over 12,000
feet. That’s nearly 2.5 miles, directly upwards from the ground.
That’s like, Old Compton Street to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. I was so
anxious that I felt like my head was going to explode. A man opened the door and almost immediately a couple of crazy people jumped out and disappeared. Now my instructor was scooting me over to the door. The cameraman stood on the outside of the plane like a madman and my instructor sat me on the edge. The world looked very small and I thought at least it was a nice view and maybe when I died there might be a nice newspaper story about me raising money for equality.
The instructor pushed us off the edge and I produced the loudest scream ever. We were flipping around, upside down and then headfirst towards the ground. It was the most terrifying sensation I’ve ever experienced. Thankfully, within seconds we were in the correct position, which is sort of as if you want to bellyflop the floor. I felt a lot better and stopped screaming and even managed to smile for the cameraman and hold hands.
The instructor let out the parachute which pulled me
back with so much force that I thought we might be going up again. Once
it was completely deployed we slowed right down and I felt much safer.
The instructor let me control the parachute and I went in little
circles and he pointed to France and stuff. It was actually quite nice.
We flew around for ages until it was time to land and the instructor
controlled it again and I just landed on my bum. The cameraman tried to
ask me questions again but I still couldn’t really talk properly. When I got home and saw how much money I had raised it made it all worthwhile. I can’t believe by how much I beat my target. You can see my fundraising page here: www.justgiving.com/lavenderjumps
I even got nominated for an Ultimate Planet award for this as well as my other volunteering. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and appreciated. I would like to say a massive thank you to all the people who supported me. Planet London in particular were an amazing help and supported me in every way they could. I couldn’t have done it without them and our fantastic LBQ community. Thank you!
By Sarah Lavender
