A student from a Tees Valley college made one giant leap on Sunday (19^th April) to raise money to fight against and care for those suffering from cancer.

Hannah Calvert, aged 23 and a student at Redcar & Cleveland College, jumped from a plane at over 10,000 feet above the north east countryside as part of a fundraising drive for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Hannah, who is studying an Access to Health course at Redcar & Cleveland College, found out about the work of the Marie Curie charity through her studies and decided that she wanted to do something personally to raise awareness about it in her hometown. She was spurred on in her endeavours by her friends, family and work colleagues who worked tirelessly to help her fundraise in preparation for the day.

She is going on to begin a course in Nursing at Northumbria University next March and one of the career routes she is considering is becoming a Marie Curie nurse.

Speaking about the event, Hannah said:

“I wanted to do something a bit different from the usual kinds of fundraising activities you see and when I found out about the opportunity to skydive it seemed the perfect way to raise money and awareness.

“The Marie Curie charity does such fantastic work not only in caring for those who are suffering from cancer, but also in working towards finding improved methods of treatment for it and hopefully one day even a cure.

“If I’m honest I’m a little scared of heights, but the support that I’ve had from my family, friends, tutors and local businesses has been amazing and it was a fantastic experience which I’d love to repeat.”

So far Hannah has raised over £1000, but is hoping that this figure will increase significantly as people can still donate to her appeal. Amongst those who have already donated are:

·      Staff and management from Consteel, Saltburn

·      Customers, managment and staff from The Fox & Hounds, Slapewath

·      Staff and customers from Steve Windross Buchers

·      Staff from Stoneacre, Durham 

Anyone wishing to sponsor her in her efforts can do so by calling into Redcar & Cleveland College and completing the sponsor form at reception.