Thabani Sithole, a former paediatric nurse, has raised roughly £945 for Independent Age, a charity which supports and advises older people facing financial hardships, after receiving help from it in 2021. The skydive took place at Netheravon Airfield, in Wiltshire, on Friday and Ms Sithole jumped from 13,500ft out of the plane. Ms Sithole, who lives with her daughter Khwezi Sithole, 43, in Lambeth, London, is no stranger to skydiving having done the activity in 2018, adding she “really enjoyed” the latest one.
She told the PA news agency: “It was a beautiful and sunny day and I had such a lovely instructor. We really enjoyed it, it was fun. “You fall down first from the plane and when the parachute comes up, that’s when you think, ‘okay, what’s going on?’ “All I could see were the clouds, then you wave and you blow kisses.
” Her daughter jokingly asked her mum: “Why are you throwing yourself out of a plane?” She added: “But she wanted to do it, and she’s planning another skydive as we speak.” Ms Sithole said she decided to skydive because she wanted to send a message to older people who are struggling with their finances “that even in old age, you don’t have to suffer alone”. She experienced financial hardship after retiring as a paediatric nurse aged 70 due to her arthritis.
“Before I got the help from Independent Age it was a desperate, desperate time,” she said. “We had so many problems – where to get food from, how to pay the bi.