Miss Gibraltar goes skydiving for Calpe House

ALONG with two members of staff from Gibraltar House in London, the reigning Miss Gibraltar, Kayley Mifsud, has parachuted from 15,000 feet in order to raise funds for the Calpe House Appeal.

Calpe House is a newly purchased property costing £6 million in the centre of London where Gibraltar patients who have been referred to a London hospital find a warm, friendly and permanent facility where they can stay during their treatment in the company of fellow Gibraltarians who are in similar difficult circumstances in what will be a home from home.

In their tandem skydives, Kayley, Faye Burfoot and Edwina O’Mahony experienced a full minute of freefall and reached speeds of around 130mph.

Kayley said, “I met Faye and Edwina at the Calpe House Gala a few weeks ago and they invited me to join them on the parachute jump. It was something I’d always wanted to do so I booked up for it the very next day. Some friends sent me stories of ‘Parachute Jumps that went wrong’ but, even then, I wasn’t really scared”

“When I got up to the airfield in Seville, I put all my trust in the instructor – he had already done six jumps that morning. After we’d jumped from the plane, we had 60 seconds of freefall which was enough time to take everything in. Then, when the parachute opened we had another five minutes before we landed – in fact, the instructor allowed me able to control the descent for a while. I enjoyed it so much that I want to do it again.”

Faye added, “If I had to sum up a skydive in three words they would be nervous, exhilarating and amazing, and I think I speak for all three of us when I say if we could do it again tomorrow we would! We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone that sponsored us: your money is going towards a very good cause”

“It is a great achievement and wonderful for the girls to support Calpe House in this way,” said Albert Poggio, the Vice Chairman of the Calpe House Charitable Trust. “After their initial nerves, they thoroughly enjoyed it”.

Anyone wishing to make a donation to the Calpe House is invited to do so via the website www.calpehouse.org.