Family’s freefall raises thousands
Maidenhead: Taking a dive for former head of swimming
The family of a late Maidenhead swimming teacher completed a skydive in her memory at the weekend, raising thousands of pounds for Thames Hospice at the same time.
Alix Burnage passed away on August 11 at Thames Hospice after a battle with a brain tumour and was well known as being head of swimming at St Piran's school in Gringer Hill for more than 15 years.
On Sunday, members of her close family braved chilly temperatures as they took to the skies at Hinton Airfield in Brackley.
Two of Alix’s children – Luke and Charlotte – along with her niece Katie White and cousins Matthew Hewis and James Eastwood, jumped out of the plane as part of a fundraising drive to give back to the hospice which looked after Alix in her final days.
At the time of writing, nearly £3,000 had been raised for the Windsor Road facility from the skydive appeal.
This is in addition to more than £24,000 raised on a webpage dedicated to Alix’s memory, with this money going to the Maidenhead Lions Club and RNLI as well as the hospice.
Alix’s mum, Gill Hoare, said that the idea to skydive out of a plane was the brainchild of son Luke, who had planned to complete the activity with his mum last summer.
“He was adamant within a few hours that we should do something for the hospice because they were fantastic,” Gill said.
“Without them we would have been snookered and struggled so much.
“We were with Alix for the whole time she was in there.
“We decided we would do it [the skydive] as a team and they were great at the airfield – they were really friendly and it was a lovely day.”
Gill said that the skydiving team were ‘quite cool and collected’ and added that Alix ‘would have wanted to give something back’ to Thames Hospice as well.
Husband Andy, who Alix married in 1996, wrote about his experience at the hospice while his wife was in there as part of a story published by the charity.
“The sense of peace and tranquillity at the hospice is so comforting at such a turbulent time,” he wrote.
“We always felt that Alix was a person to the nursing team, not another patient.”
Alix’s story has helped Thames Hospice raise enough money with an appeal to fund four of five nursing assistant posts for the next six months.
The appeal has raised nearly £50,000.
To give money in memory of Alix, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ teamalixburnage and www.alixburnage. muchloved.com