Hebburn hospital worker who is terrified of heights facing fear with skydive to raise money for QE Hospital Charitable Fund

Louise Brown, 45, works as an associate practitioner in cellular pathology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Gateshead and decided to do the skydive on a whim to raise money for its charitable Fund.

The charitable trust was donated the opportunity of a skydive and Louise signed up thinking she would never be picked – but to her shock she was selected, and is now preparing to face her fear of heights.

Louise, who is married with two children, is excited but terrified and she prepares for the skydive, but knows it will be worth it to support the work QE Hospital Charitable Fund do.

She said: “I put my name forward without thinking because I didn’t think I’d ever get picked. I was so shocked when I saw I had but I knew I wanted to do it. I’m absolutely terrified of heights, I’m the kind of person who won’t go on the big rides. When I told my husband he thought I was crazy, I’ve never done anything like this before.

“It’s massive to support places like the QE charitable Fund. I see first hand they make a massive difference to the people we look after. The money goes towards improving the lives of patients, state of the art equipment which we use, enhanced training and essential research. It’s really important.”

Another factor which played a role in Louise doing the skydive is the difficulties of the last year, working in a hospital during the pandemic.

Louise added: “The last year things have been really difficult and being stuck at home not being able to do anything I thought it would be fun to do something different and raise money at the same time.

“Working in the hospital over the last year has been really hard and there's been a lot of uncertainty, but I think we’re coming to the end of the tunnel now and things are getting brighter.”

The skydive is taking place in Peterlee on August 1 and donations can be made to sponsor Louise on her Just Giving page via this link.

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