These Girls Can!

Anna Mostyn in the Fifth Form and Lucy Kellock in the Upper Sixth have recently been involved in highly successful and deeply personal fundraising activities. Anna Mostyn explains the background to her recent adventure: “At the beginning of half term, I jumped out of a plane to raise money for the school charity, Restore. The whole idea of skydiving for charity first started when my beloved Uncle Giles took his own life last summer. It came as a massive shock to everyone as Giles had always been a happy person and was always smiling. It made me think that there needs to be much greater awareness of mental illness as it can be very difficult to spot. My Uncle Giles LOVED to skydive so it seemed the obvious way to raise money and awareness. The actual skydive was amazing. I was flown up to 12,500 feet, jumped out of the plane (with an instructor) and did a 45 second freefall before the parachute launched. It was utterly exhilarating and definitely the best day of my life so far. The £4,000 I raised for Restore placed me in the top 1% of JustGiving fundraisers in October so I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported me.” Watch Anna’s video of the jump here. Very sadly, Lucy Kellock also felt compelled to undertake her charitable project after losing someone very dear — her friend, Allegra Whittome, who died suddenly in February. Allegra’s family founded a charity, Allegra’s Ambition, to help young people build positive attitudes and behaviours through sport and outdoor activities. Lucy decided to help by cutting off a huge amount of her own hair and asking friends and family to sponsor her. She was also able to help another charity, The Little Princess Trust, by donating the discarded hair. The charity uses real hair to provide wigs for children suffering hair loss as a result of cancer treatment or alopecia. You can support Lucy’s project here and Anna’s here.