Zurich staff go sky diving for children's charity CLIC Sargent (From Swindon Advertiser)

Zurich staff go sky diving for children's charity CLIC Sargent

5:00pm Monday 29th October 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards

A BRAVE team of staff from Zurich took the plunge as they raised thousands for children’s charity CLIC Sargent.

Twenty-one employees from the Swindon-based firm and two family members were glad to be safely back on solid ground to present a cheque of £9,015.09 to the charity.

They volunteered to leap from a plane in a tandem skydive at a height of 13,000ft for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people. The jump took place at a jump base near Salisbury.

Each of the team experienced a hair-raising 45 seconds of free-fall at speeds of around 120mph until their parachutes opened 5,000ft from the ground.

Mark Heasman, who led the jump on behalf of Zurich’s UK Life Finance team, said: “I was initially shocked by the number of staff who wanted to take part, but our department has a very good reputation for raising money for deserving causes.

“Having seen the amazing work CLIC Sargent does first hand, it was an absolute pleasure to raise money for such an admirable charity.

“Although the jump sounds scary, everyone had a huge amount of fun jumping.”

Cerys Glen, CLIC Sargent’s corporate partnerships account executive, said: “CLIC Sargent helps families and young people meet the extra costs, such as travel and childcare, which escalate during cancer treatment, by providing vital grants right from the start.

“Over the last two years we gave over 4,500 grants to families to a total value of nearly £1m.

“The fantastic sum raised by the skydivers could fund 52 grants provided to families within days of diagnosis to help with initial costs such as hospital car park fees or emergency childcare for siblings.”

Steve Grimmett, UK employee involvement manager at Zurich Community Trust, said: “I’ve got huge admiration for our team of sky divers– obviously they have a much better head for heights than I do.

“It is really pleasing to see such a large number of Zurich employees supporting the hugely valuable work of CLIC Sargent so early on in our partnership.”