Parachute jump for Denmead fundraiser raising money for ‘invaluable’ hospice on 20th anniversary of her dad’s passing

Emily Dodd is set to take on a tandem parachute jump on March 20 to raise funds for The Rowans Hospice.

The cybersecurity PhD student lost her father Russell Dodd to terminal kidney cancer when she was only seven years old.

He was cared for at The Rowans Hospice, passing away only four months after his terminal diagnosis.

Determined to do something ‘crazy’ to mark the 20th anniversary of his passing, Emily decided to take a fundraising leap at Salisbury.

The 27-year-old said: ‘He was a pretty crazy man so I’ve got to do something crazy to commemorate him.’

Emily picked the parachute challenge as it ‘seemed like the craziest thing’ she could think of as she is ‘petrified of heights’.

However, the fundraising champion wants to raise money and awareness for the hospice and ‘the amazing stuff they do’.

Emily said: ‘The Rowans were there for me and my mum in a really dark time.

‘Even after long periods of time, they’ll always have a place in my heart - their work is still invaluable 20 years on.’

SEE ALSO: Right royal fun for little princes and princesses at ‘magical’ Queens Hotel tea party marking a year of Platinum Jubilee celebrations

Emily has already smashed her target of £500 but is keen to raise as much as possible.

Instead of flowers at Russell’s funeral 20 years ago, the family asked for donations to The Rowans Hospice and were able to raise more than £2,000 for the charity.

Emily said: ‘I feel I've come full circle in doing this fundraising 20 years later.’

‘My dad was a larger than life man and I hope I can honour him by doing something like this, as Marcus Aurelius once said ‘what we do in life echoes in eternity’ and everything my dad did in his short life echoes in my eternity and I wouldn't change that for the world.’

Emily is ‘super close’ to her mum, who is also her ‘best friend’.

She said: ‘Mum’s the strongest person I know.

‘My mum and my step dad are coming to watch me from the ground.

‘She’s really proud of me for doing something this mental.’

Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/emily-dodd25.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Subscribe here for unlimited access to all our coverage, including Pompey, for just 26p a day.