Woman to jump from 13,000 feet to help restore pensioner's sight (From Cotswold Journal)

Woman to jump from 13,000 feet to help restore pensioner's sight

12:45pm Thursday 7th January 2010 in News By Simon Crump

BOURTON’S Kelly Soper will do a 13,000-foot parachute jump to help raise about £16,000 to fund surgery that would restore the sight of a pensioner she has never met.

Kelly, 33, will do the tandem jump at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire on Mothering Sunday - March 14 - to raise as much sponsorship money as possible for Dorothy Leach.

Dorothy, 75, has lived in Hardwicke, Gloucester with husband, Percy, for 53 years.

They have four children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Visiting her first great grandson while on holiday in February 2009, Dorothy complained of a headache and so took pain killers and went to bed early.

She woke up next morning totally blind.

Her second great grandson was born two weeks later.

Doctors discovered arthritis of the blood cells caused Dorothy’s sudden blindness.

Stem cell treatment is the only possible cure but the kind Dorothy needs is only available in China.

China’s Qingdao Chengyang People’s Hospital has accepted her for treatment but it will cost about £16,000.

Kelly has been fundraising since the age of 12 and has generated about £34,000, for various charities, over the past decade.

She was so touched by Dorothy’s plight, after learning of it from a television newscast, that she determined to help.

Kelly chose to do a parachute jump because she knew it was a means of raising a lot of money, having raised £1,200 for London’s St George’s Hospital by doing a one about two-and-a-half years ago.

She is planning other fundraising events for Dorothy.

Kelly said: “It was just the fact that somebody, unfortunately, could lose their sight overnight.

“It’s sad to have a great grandchild and you can’t even see.”

To sponsor Kelly, telephone 01451 824489.

For details of Dorothy’s fundraising drive, visit www.patleach.co.uk