Super slimmer's skydive raises £3,000 for charity (From York Press)
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Super slimmer's skydive raises £3,000 for charity
7:44am Monday 29th October 2012 in News
By Jennifer Bell, jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk
Derick Sargent pictured above on his tandem jump
A SUPER SLIMMER who shed more than eight stone has achieved his life-long ambition – skydiving – and raising £3,000 for charity to boot.
Derick Sargent, 48, reached the finals of Slimming World’s Man Of The Year 2012 contest after slimming from 22st 3.5lb to 14st 1.5lb last year. One of his long-held ambitions was to go skydiving. Then his mum Ethel, from Thirsk, was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Derick, of Coxwold, said: “I decided this was it – I’d do the jump and raise money for a good cause at the same time. It was an extra incentive.”
Derick, a goods intake supervisor for Holmesterne Foods in Catterick, chose the charities Bowel & Cancer Research and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and handed over the cash at the Forresters Arms in Kilburn.
His mum, dad John, and friends and relatives, were there to watch when he jumped out of a plane from 13,500ft at Shotton Airfield, in Peterlee, and plunged earthwards at 140mph.
Derick said: “It was unbelievable. I just sat on the edge of the plane and rolled out – I wasn’t frightened at all. I was as high as a kite on adrenaline for three days afterwards.
“Mum is doing fine now. She was rushed into Northallerton hospital and had an operation three days later. She had chemo and has just got the all-clear. It has been one hell of a year.”
Deborah Gilbert, head of development at Bowel and Cancer Research, said 40,000 people in the UK were affected by bowel cancer every year.
She said: “We’re really pleased that Mrs Sargent came through her treatment. The support of people like Derick is invaluable if we are to help make sure that more people survive the disease in future.”
Tony Doveston, regional fundraiser from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, thanked Derick for the cash. He said: “He may be nice and slim these days, but there’s nothing lightweight about his generosity.”
Anyone who wants to add to Derick’s fundraising total can text him on 07857 668285.
