A care home manager from Nottingham has faced her fears to complete a skydive raising cash towards the cost of overseas cancer treatment for an RAF veteran.
Cheered on by residents from the home who had come along to watch, manager at The Grand Care Centre in West Bridgford Tracy Johnston successfully undertook the tandem jump from 14,000ft at Langar Airfield in Nottingham, raising more than £900 towards the cost of life-extending cancer treatment in Germany for RAF veteran Ian Trushell.
A family friend of the Johnston-Mooneys, 49-year-old Ian served in the Royal Air Force for 24 years and was most recently medically discharged to focus on his battle with Stage IV bowl cancer, also onboarding and fighting metastasis in the lung and liver areas.
With treatment for Ian’s specific condition limited in the UK, the family became aware of medical advancements in Germany that could address his liver mets and immediately set about fundraising to help towards the costly treatment. Thanks to other fundraising, Ian has already been to Germany for initial consultations and the results of the trials have been positive showing reductions in the liver metastasis.
“I had been saying for a while that I would do a skydive to celebrate my 50th birthday and tick it off my bucket list,” said Tracy, who lives in Lincoln next to RAF Waddington, “And when we heard about Ian’s battle with bowl cancer and the opportunity for treatment abroad my mind was made up. So close to all of our hearts, I was determined to raise as much as I can to help extend Ian’s life and enable him to spend more time with his young family.
“It was wonderful to have so many residents and the staff from The Grand come along to support me, including 96-year-old Beryl who is no stranger to a skydive completing one herself when she was younger.”
Sadly Ian was unable to attend the skydive event as he was in Germany for his fourth treatment. He said: “’Tracy is incredibly brave. I couldn’t do a skydive as I have a fear of heights despite 24 years in the RAF!”
Commissioning director at New Care, Dawn Collett, added: “We are so incredibly proud of Tracy for the skydive and also to the team at The Grand for going along to support her and wish Ian the very best with his treatment in Germany.”
Part of the McGoff Group, New Care is one of the UK’s leading care home providers. Its portfolio of purpose-built luxury care centres has an enviable reputation for outstanding care that is second to none.
New Care has two superb care homes in Nottingham, The Grand in West Bridgford and Ruddington Manor in Wilford, offering exceptional nursing, residential, respite and dementia care from an experienced and friendly team. For further information, please see www.newcarehomes.com.
