STAFF at youth support charity Rathbone will be taking to the skies to raise money for more equipment at its Bury centre.

Military preparation tutor Jordan Hargreaves and hairdressing tutor Alicia Yates will take part in a sponsored tandem parachute from 15,000ft, in Lancaster, on August 2.

A second team of function skills tutor Steven Durham and the Brierley Street centre manager Cheryl Peet will also make the same jump on September 6.

Cheryl said: “We’ve talked about fundraising for the Bury centre for a while and we all agreed if we did something, it would have to be a genuine personal challenge.

“Jordan suggested a parachute jump and as none of us had done anything like this before, so we decided to go for it.” The teams asked learners for ideas on how the money raised should be spent and, so far, suggestions have included gym equipment for the military preparation course, a car to work on for the motor vehicle garage and a new floor for the hairdressing salon.

Alicia added: “As the jump gets nearer, the nerves are increasing but our motivation is the great cause we’re doing it for.”

Rathbone provides youth employability training to people aged 16-24 in Bury to support their progression to further education, training and work.

The charity also has 46 other centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and last year they supported almost 11,000 young people.

n—The Bury team need to raise £200 so the jump can go ahead and are appealing for donations through their Just Giving page: justgiving.com/skydive-bury