A CHILDMINDER is getting ready to skydive to raise money for the Prospect Hospice.

Sarah Richardson, 30, of Shaw, will carry out the tandem jump from 10,000 feet above Redland Airfield on June 10.

But there is a very personal reason Sarah is supporting Prospect Hospice, as they gave her and her father, Phil Freegard, support while he was ill with lung cancer.

He was diagnosed with the disease in 2010 and died in November last year. Sarah said the team at Prospect Hospice were very caring.

“They gave us so much support and advice,” she said. “Dad never made it into the hospice but they were always on the end of the phone and helped him get to hospital when he was really ill.”

If losing one parent to cancer wasn’t enough, in the same month her father died Sarah’s mother Angela, who is a housekeeper at BMI The Ridgeway Hospital, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Angela is currently having radiotherapy treatment at the Wroughton hospital following a successful operation to remove a lump.

“It was so hard coping with Dad going and mum being ill too,” said Sarah.

“She was amazing and you’d never know what she had been through.

“All the nurses comment on how well she looks and her work colleagues have been very supportive.”

Sarah is hoping to raise as much money as she can to say thanks to the team at Prospect Hospice.

Angela had wanted to do the jump herself before she was diagnosed but has since persuaded Sarah to do it instead.

“Mum kept saying she wanted to do it one day but when we found out she was ill she managed to convince me to have a go instead,” said Sarah.

“I am very nervous but I know I’m doing it for a worthy charity.”

Sarah has launched a Just Giving page where people can sponsor her skydive. She has also arranged collection tins around the Great Western Hospital where her father worked as a security guard.

To sponsor Sarah visit www.justgiving.com/ sarah-richardson- skydive2012