A plucky mum faced her fears to throw herself into a charity challenge marking what would have been her teenage son’s 18th birthday.
Denise Turner, from Alcester, has raised more than £1,800 for Molly Ollys after jumping 13,000 ft from an aeroplane.
Denise’s son Sam was born with an abnormally developed brain, only detected when he stopped breathing at just 24 hours old, triggering a series of tests. He went on to be diagnosed with several chronic conditions including severe epilepsy and quadriplegic cerebral palsy. And, at one year old was registered as blind. He died in 2023 aged 16.
Denise recalls: “All we could do was to see if he hit his baby milestones. He was put on various medications to find which ones worked best for him. He developed infantile spasms at about 10 months old and had steroid injections for four weeks to stop them. He couldn’t hold his head up, sit or stand unaided.”
Denise, 53, was joined in the stunt, on July 3rd at Hinton Airfield in Brackley, by her sister Ali Perrett, from Hertfordshire and stepson Jake, 21 both supported on the day by friends and family members.
She said: “This was the first time either of us had done a parachute jump. I wasn’t nervous until the actual day. It started to get very real in the plane! We were packed in like sardines; my parachutist was chatting away to me about what we could see on the ground and I was just thinking I want this to be over!
“The initial part of the jump, leaving the plane and the free falling, was terrifying but once the parachute comes out, it’s so quiet and you can see for miles. It was just beautiful.”
Warwick-based charity Molly Ollys stepped in to grant a wish for Sam in the form of a short break at Centerparcs in Sherwood Forest. And later funded a super blender to help liquify Sam’s foods so he could be fed through his gastronomy tube.
Molly Ollys works to support children with terminal or life-limiting illnesses and their families and help with their emotional wellbeing. As well as providing more than 4,300 wishes to date, they donate therapeutic toys and books to both children directly and to hospitals throughout the UK.
Olly The Brave is a therapeutic toy that helps children understand their treatment journey. Olly has his own Hickman line and a detachable mane which helps to explain and normalise the effects of chemotherapy.
Part of more than £5m raised to date, has also been used to fund the first consultant in paediatric palliative medicine at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and pay for the training of a further two consultants.
Molly’s mum Rachel Ollerenshaw said: “It has been a privilege to be able to support Sam. The trip away and the professional blender were both significant items to help his emotional well being and the blender helping his physical needs.
“Whilst we do not have a magic wand this help is a very small part of their journey , but for parents, knowing that they have done the best they can for their child is important. We need to work together with all the teams, community nurses and other charities involved to try to help families like Sam’s through those dark days.
“We are extremely grateful to Denise and all the family for taking the time to give back in Sam’s memory.”
Denise added: “I wanted to do the jump on what would have been Sam’s 18th birthday on July 5th. Unfortunately the airfield was fully booked in that date and the 3rd was the closest they could do.
“We have a cherry tree in the front garden that we planted just after Sam passed and we decorate it with various things. For his birthday his nan brought a helium balloon with 18 on it which we tied to Sam’s tree. We also hung pictures of Sam with his brother and sister Joseph and Eve. We all wished him a happy heavenly birthday around the tree.”
Donations can still be made HERE.
For more information about Molly Ollys, visit HERE.
