Dawn Devine
I have suffered from Fibromyalgia for the past 25 years. At first I had occasional flare-ups which seemed to be quite unexplainable and an unwelcome intrusion into my busy life.
My husband and I ran successful family business for several years. I enjoyed aerobics’ and weight training. I spent many exhausting yet enjoyable holidays doing a variety of water sports with the family at our holiday home on the lakes.
As the years went on I found myself less able to join in these activities. I began to suffer from more and more symptoms and illnesses so often associated with Fibromyalgia, some of which had begun long before my diagnosis. I had to give up sports and eventually stop working. The pain and fatigue began to take total control of my life. For a whole host of various reasons I became unable to perform some of the most simplest every day tasks.
A few months ago, I had the oddest experience whilst on a short holiday with my family. My pain was less than I had experienced for many years, my mind was much clearer, everything seemed ‘better’. In a strange way, I felt almost new again. I had had times in the past when I’d had ‘better’ days but nothing like this. It was the last day of our holiday and the others had planned to “go ape” (a Tarzan assault course high in the tree tops) on our way home. We arrived, at the most beautiful forest, sun glistening through the trees. I suddenly had a desperate urge to join in. It was like a clip out of “Little Brittan”. I harnessed up and began to climb the first rope ladder, the children cheered and started to follow, my husband decided to remain firmly on the ground. I tackled cargo nets, swinging planks, vertical poles and zip slides. No, it wasn’t easy, yes it hurt like hell but it was the most exhilarating experience I had ever had.
It didn’t take long for things to get back to normal. But It was at that time when I announced to my family that if I was ever able do something like that again “it would be bigger and it would be for charity”, Fibromyalgia was the obvious choice and what’s bigger than a skydive?
Dawn Devine
The Skydive - 11th October 2008
Dawn Devine, from Bognor Regis, has bravely committed herself to a skydive to raise funds on behalf of the group.
This will be a tandem jump with an instructor at the Army Parachute Association base in Wiltshire. Her friend, Jude Williams, also signed up for a tandem jump when she heard what the cause was. At the time of writing the jump is scheduled for Saturday 11 October. However, the date has been changed once and could do so again. We will, of course, make a full report after the event.
If you would like to collect sponsorship money you can download a form here. In order to promote publicity there is a poster here that you may be able to display. Your support will be much appreciated. Sponsorship money collected should be sent to the treasurer Mr Tony Ede, 42 Gaisford Road, Worthing, BN14 7HW. Cheques in favour of FMSSAS. and he will liaise with Dawn to account for and publicise the funds raised.
Please do your bit by publicising the jump to your friends etc and getting as much sponsorship as possible.
Good luck, Dawn and Jude, and enjoy the day!
And afterwards . . . .
Yes we did it!
Perfect day, perfect weather.
What fun.
Some pictures for you to look at are below.
As soon as we have collected all of our sponsorship money I will let you know how much we raised.
The skydive consisted of:
45 second free fall followed by a 5 minute skydive-where I got to take control of the canopy and fly around the sky like a bird.
After that we came in to a perfect landing with cheers and clapping from our supporters.
Ready for off
Down we go
Landed
Rewarded
If you wish you can click on to their web site to see the '45 second free fall':
www.watchmyskydive.com/dawndevine
 
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Buy-at the FMS SAS on-line shop.