Student raises £900 for charity

A Telford student who completed a charity skydive says she may take up the daredevil sport in the future.

Ruth Lane, 20, of Fountain Drive, St Georges, raised nearly £900 from the skydive on Easter Monday morning.

She completed her first tandem dive with instructor Danny Smith at Tilstock Airfield, near Whitchurch.

The funds raised will go to the Lupus UK charity, which carries out research and raises awareness of the auto-immune system illness, which attacks not only bacteria and viruses but healthy tissue as well.

The Manchester Metropolitan University music and drama student said: "I am a member of the Wellington (Telford) Brass Band and our conductor's mother sadly died from the illness.

"I felt I wanted to do something to help raise awareness of lupus.

"I never dreamed of doing a skydive, then one day I just thought about it and decided to go for it.

"I thought not only would it raise money, but it would be an achievement for myself."Ruth jumped out of the plane, while strapped to her instructor, at 10,000ft.

She said: "It was an adrenaline rush but I was not really scared.

"We were in freefall for about 30 seconds although it seemed a lot longer than that. Then the parachute was pulled open and we took about six minutes to get to the ground. It was very calm and relaxing.

"The landing went well and I just felt it was a great achievement.

"My family and friends were really proud of what I had done. A lot of them came along to see me do it.

"I think I have a bit of an addiction to it now. I really enjoyed it and I am seriously looking at training to do my first skydive on my own.

"It was fantastic fun and I would encourage anyone to do it."