Skydiving team raising money to fight against rare form of cancer

Mel de Lacy, a 48-year-old mother-of-two from Chichester, discovered a tumour in her lung back in October 16.

With her condition now terminal, she has been raising as much money as possible for Sarcoma UK, which supports people and families affected by the rare cancer.

Now, a team from Spire Portsmouth Hospital, where Mel works as a physiotherapist, has joined her in her battle as they prepare to jump out of a plane for charity on March 31.

The team will fly up to 15,000ft before parachuting back down to the ground.

According to Sarcoma UK, 10 people are diagnosed with the illness every day.

Mel said: ‘Medically I’m not stable enough to be able to take part myself, but to have the support of ten Spire colleagues means the world to me.

‘It is so kind of them to help raise money for Sarcoma UK and I am very grateful for their support.

‘It was just before Christmas when my prognosis got worse and I stopped responding to the treatment.

‘I don’t know how long I have left and, to be honest, I don’t want to know.

‘I don’t have a bucket list of things to do – I just want to make the most of the time I have left and take each day as it comes.

‘All I want to do is transform my situation into something positive so that it helps other people – that is why I started fundraising.

‘I want to raise money for Sarcoma UK, but also raise awareness of this incredibly rare form of cancer.

‘I’ll be going along on the day to support them and welcome them back to the ground.’

To support Mel and the team from Spire Portsmouth Hospital, people can go to justgiving.com/fundraising/melstoryskydive