Afternoon, At the moment we don't hold our own skydiving events, though individual supporters do raise money for us in this way. Our events team would like to run sponsored sky-diving, and have asked me what I think. Now, first of all, we would use the services of a reputable provider with a good track-record, there's no possibility of us just bunging people in a cessna and kicking them out of the door; the actual training, the drop, decisions about whether to go or not and so on would be done by an accredited professional sky-diving provider, you need have no worries on that line. All I'm interested in is some compartitive risk information. We already run treks to e.g. Everest base camp, cycle rides both on and off road, sponsored walks (some at midnight) and other events, including the offer of Charity places at various marathons and half-marathons. These events all pose risks; is the risk of a supported skydive using professional providers of the same order of magnitude as say downhill mountain biking, or driving/motorcycling, or running a marathon, or is it about the same? My feeling is it's a bit better than riding a motorbike, more dangerous than going for a walk, but any reasoned opinion welcome and if you have some hard numbers all the better, John

Hi John, Personal perspective only; 1) 30 years riding motorcycles, resulting in one minor 'off' due to diesel spillage in road = 1 minor injury, 2) 1 charity parachute jump, resulting in a broken ankle when I landed on a stone (hidden by the stubble of the barley field) in the drop zone...as I thought it was only a sprain I then drove 60 miles using my leg with the broken ankle to operate the vehicle clutch....still brings a tear to my eye thinking about it... That said, I would be the first to support the idea of aloowing such activities to go ahead, if managed as you outline in your post. Regards, Ross