A UNIVERSITY of Cumbria lecturer has raised over £1,300 by completing a 15,000ft charity skydive... wearing nothing but Speedos.
Dr Mark Christie took on the scantily clad challenge on the afternoon of Monday, August 26.
The jump took place at Cark Airfield in Grange-over-Sands, with Mark teaming up with Skydive Northwest and a fellow Speedo sporting jump instructor to make the event possible.
Mark dived 15,000ft in his Speedos as part of a challenge alongside his university colleague Mithil Shah, who is set to take on a bungee jump in Scotland in September, in aid of Cancer Research UK, a charity close to both men who recently lost their mothers to the disease.
Mark's portion of the challenge also followed the opening of the pair's charity endeavours, which saw them both swim two-and-a-half kilometres at Ullswater and receive a congratulatory message from Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty's mother Caroline.
After Mark completed his Speedo skydive, he explained why the pair had chosen to complete their challenges with minimum clothing.
He said: "Myself and swimming friend Mithil Shah both lost our mums to cancer recently, so we set out to channel our grief in a positive way for an important cause.
"First, we had the swim across Ullswater, a two-and-a-half kilometre swim with the support of Channel swimmer Colin Hill escorting us safely through a variety of paddleboarders, steamers, sailboats, kayaks, and power boats.
"Then the jump part was for me to do the parachute jump in swimwear, and Mithil is set to do a bungee jump in swimwear.
"It was certainly an awesome experience, one I never thought I’d ever do, let alone in swimwear.
"Ralph the instructor was fantastic, and spontaneously with minutes to go before the flight took off stripped down to his shorts too for a laugh.
"Losing mum was really, really tough – I thought she’d easily reach 100 years old – so in a way I felt even closer to her up there at 15000ft doing this in her memory."
After initially setting a fundraising goal of £1,000, the pair has to date raised £1,395 through their JustGiving page, with Mark thanking everybody for their support so far.
He said: "We set a target initially of £1,000 as I’m conscious it’s difficult to keep asking for donations during a cost-of-living crisis but we’re going well, nearly £1,400 now and counting from over 60 donations.
"Cancer is still an incredibly difficult disease to beat, whilst screening for cancers of all types is improving rapidly, there are still many issues to solve both in terms of early identification and effective treatment.
"Every pound raised will help health practitioners and scientists in their search for more effective treatments and preventive approaches."
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