Gateshead teen with mind tumour completes charity skydive

A blind teenager with a mind tumour has accomplished a charity skydive in his ultimate fundraising effort earlier than taking a break to concentrate on his GCSEs.

Jack Thompson tackled the problem on the SkyHigh Skydiving centre in Peterlee on Saturday and mentioned it had been “sensible”.

The 16-year-old, who lives in Gateshead, has raised greater than £160,000 for the charity Younger Lives vs Most cancers previously 9 years.

He mentioned may return to fundraising as soon as he has completed his exams.

“I need to do properly in as many GCSE topics as potential – hopefully all of them – and maths is my favorite,” Jack instructed PA Media.

He was recognized with a low grade glioma, a sort of mind tumour, on his optic nerve when he was 4 months previous, which left him registered blind.

He has since undergone seven rounds of chemotherapy, proton remedy and must have common mind scans and development hormone injections each night time.

Jack’s aunt Wendy, her good friend Amy and Sam Hughes – a fundraising engagement supervisor at Younger Lives vs Most cancers – all tackled skydives too.

{The teenager} has fundraised at Morrisons outlets since 2018 and a supervisor on the grocery store’s retailer in Doxford Park additionally joined the group in finishing the journey on Saturday.

Jack had beforehand instructed BBC Radio Newcastle that he was “under no circumstances” nervous concerning the skydive.

“I am a thrill-seeker,” he mentioned.

Describing the skydive as “sensible”, he added: “They harness you up and then you definitely soar out of the airplane and once you’re doing the freefall, it is extremely windy and you’re transferring at about 120 miles an hour, which I heard.

“Even within the area of 30 seconds going at that pace, you drop a lot, however I really like going quick.

“I additionally acquired to do a little bit of steering of the parachute which was an incredible expertise.”