A mum faced her fears by throwing herself into a charity challenge marking what would have been her teenage son’s 18th birthday. Denise Turner, from Alcester, raised more than £1,800 for Molly Ollys after jumping 13,000 ft from an aeroplane!
Denise’s son Sam was born with an abnormally developed brain, only detected when he stopped breathing at just 24 hours old, triggering a series of tests. He went on to be diagnosed with several chronic conditions including severe epilepsy and quadriplegic cerebral palsy. And, at one year old was registered as blind. He sadly died in 2023 aged 16.
Denise recalls: “All we could do was to see if he hit his baby milestones. He was put on various medications to find which ones worked best for him. He developed infantile spasms at about 10 months old and had steroid injections for four weeks to stop them. He couldn’t hold his head up, sit or stand unaided.”
Denise was joined in the stunt, on July 3rd at Hinton Airfield in Brackley, by her sister Ali Perrett, from Hertfordshire and stepson Jake, all supported on the day by friends and family members.
She said: “This was the first time either of us had done a parachute jump. I wasn’t nervous until the actual day. It started to get very real in the plane! We were packed in like sardines; my parachutist was chatting away to me about what we could see on the ground and I was just thinking I want this to be over! The initial part of the jump, leaving the plane and the free falling, was terrifying but once the parachute comes out, it’s so quiet and you can see for miles. It was just beautiful.”
Molly Ollys stepped in to grant a wish for Sam in the form of a short break at Centerparcs in Sherwood Forest. We later funded a super blender to help liquify Sam’s foods so he could be fed through his gastronomy tube.
Our co-founder Rachel Ollerenshaw said: “It has been a privilege to be able to support Sam. The trip away and the professional blender were both significant items to help his emotional well being and physical needs. Whilst we do not have a magic wand this help was a very small part of their journey, but for parents, knowing that they have done the best they can for their child is important. We need to work together with all the teams, community nurses and other charities involved to try to help families like Sam’s through those dark days.
“And we are of course extremely grateful to Denise and all the family for taking the time to give back in Sam’s memory.”