I'm terrified but I'll sky dive for Dad

A WOMAN who is terrified of heights is to raise £10,000 for charity in memory of her late father - by jumping out of a plane.

Vicky Ingle, 21, plans to complete the skydive to raise money for Headway East Lothian after her father, John Brown, died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage, aged just 39.

Ms Ingle, who lives in Haddington, said: "I thought I'd choose the most difficult thing. I wanted to do something that I was scared of - you don't know how long you've got in life and you should live every moment like it's your last. I'm absolutely petrified of heights - I can't even walk across the bridge at the St James Centre.

"Trying to find a charity that had something you could relate to was quite hard. Brain haemorrhages are quite hidden, there's not very many people that are aware that they can come and just take you like that. We found Headway and went up and visited them and in the half an hour I was in there it was like 'Wow.'

"I sat by my dad's bed in hospital, which was hard, but walking in there I thought 'This is what it could have been'. They have immense support from the guys that work in there."

Mr Brown, a security guard who was originally from Haddington, died in August after collapsing at his home in Liverpool.

Ms Ingle said: "I had a telephone call from Merseyside Police trying to track down my dad's next of kin. I thought 'Why, what's he done?', The woman on the phone said 'I need you to make your way to Liverpool University Hospital'. I said 'Why?', but she wouldn't tell me anything.

"I got there and walked into the ICU room and there was my dad, and there were just tubes and wires everywhere. I sat by my dad for most of the night holding his hand and hoping he would wake up. The next morning they switched the machine off to see if he could breathe for himself and he couldn't.

"I got called into that little room and they said 'That's all we can do,' and my life just crumbled. The doctor in the hospital was actually crying when he was confirming that my dad was dead. He was a young doctor and he just said 'I'm sorry there's nothing we can do'."

Alongside the parachute jump, which she will complete in June next year with a group of friends, Ms Ingle plans to hold a range of fundraising events, starting with a charity race and auction night at the Toll Bridge Hotel in Haddington on November 5. Tickets are available from the bar.

To sponsor Ms Ingle, see www.justgiving.com/charityskydive2011