On 22 July, seventeen people strapped themselves to the top of a biplane for a charity the majority of them had never heard of a year ago. By the time the last one came down, nobody needed the mission explained.
The rule of a wing walk is simple: you stand on the upper wing of a biplane, harnessed to a frame, while the aircraft climbs to a few hundred feet and does everything an aircraft can reasonably do with a person tied to the outside of it. There is no cabin, no window, and no polite way to change your mind at 130mph.
First up on the day was Sarah from Sterling Network HQ; which is both extraordinarily brave and an excellent way of ensuring there is no time to change your mind . After Sarahs extrordinary and very creative fundraising campaign raising nearly £2000 she absolutely set the tone for everything that followed that day : up in the air, cheering amd whooping from take off to landing and immediately telling the next person in the queue that it was amazing and she wanted to go back up!!
Seventeen walkers went up in total. Thankfully, all returned to earth safely and full of enthusiasm .
One of those people deserves a paragraph of her own.
She was not a corporate fundraiser or a thrill-seeker. She was someone Stevie Stones had helped. She had come to the charity retrospectively after losing one of her boys 12 years previously and had yet to be able to afford a headstone for him. She joined us on 22 July to raise money so that the next family in that position would find the same door open. Amazingly this lady took on not only the initial wing walk but proceeded to the advanced flight, featuring barrel roles, engine stalls and stomach churning loop the loops. Unexpectedly another light air craft joined them on this flight and they flew some manoeuvres in tandem, providing am extremely sureal experience.
For readers who have not come across it, Stevie Stones, funds memorial headstones for families who have lost children and find themselves without a way of paying for a memorial. It is a need most people never think about until they are standing in the middle of it. Families who cannot meet it are left with an unmarked plot and the weight of knowing their child has no lasting tribute to show the workd they existed. The charity exists for one reason: no child is forgotten.
Between them, the seventeen walkers raised £9,000, and every pound goes directly to funding headstones.
Enormous thanks to everyone who went up, everyone who sponsored them, and to Sterling Network for backing an event that asks a great deal of its volunteers but allows the charity to issue the money to parents who are struggling with bereavement poverty.
Next year’s wing walk is already being planned. If you have ever fancied finding out what you are made of at three thousand feet, there is a place on the wing with your name on it.
