Jonathan Day Hopes To Become The First Blind Person To Carry Out A Freefall Parachute Jump For Charity

Preparations for world record parachute jump by man with disabilities.

Jonathan Day of Somerleyton, Suffolk talks about the planning ahead of his parachute jump, the first by a blind person. Anglia TV reporter Chris Young asks him about the particular risks for someone blind, and Jonathan says there are risks everyday in crossing the road. He will jump from the plane with an instructor attached behind him, who will guide their descent. They will be in radio contact with one another, and there will be a special harness to raise Jonathan’s legs as they land, where people will be there to catch him. This video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Disability; Blindness; Parachute jumps; Charity; Fundraising

Additional Description

Local newspaper reports confirm that Jonathan Day, then aged 25,completed his parachute jump at Sibson Airfield, Peterborough in September 1986, claiming a world record. Besides his blindness, he had ankylosing spondylitis, and he campaigned locally to improve the lives of other disabled people. He proposed a parachute jump with 11 other blind or partially-sighted colleagues, sailed on the Lord Nelson with the Jubilee Trust in 1987 and founded a pressure group to campaign for change in provision for disabled people at local and national level in 1988. http://www.dswebhosting.info/Suffolk/SRODServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Site31&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%271176%2F2%2F1%2F4%2F101%27)