By Baylon McCaughey
Lauren McCoy in full flight.
Action Photo; Thanks to Wild Geese Parachute Ltd.
Cookstown motor cycle enthuasist Lauren McCoy has recently experienced the thrills of Free Fall Parachuting.
However, this experience wasn’t for fun, it was indeed for a good cause, and the Charity that benefitted from this was “ The Injured Riders Fund”.
Lauren, who has been interested in motor cycling for quite a no of years now, thanks to her Dads interests in road racing.
“I used to help out with Dean Cooper when he was racing, and i suppose , going to the road races with Dad opened a complete new avenue for me. The atmosphere at the road races is un equalled !. Lauren, an unemployed salesperson, has attended all races in Ireland as well as the IOM TT.
So how did this Parachute jump come about?
“I had talked about doing a jump for a long time, originally i intended to do it for diabetes, as my sister is a diabetic, But after Mark Youngs tragic accident, I changed my mind, and thought that the money was more beneficial going to the “injured riders fund ”
Mark was also a very close family friend, so I set about inquiring about this fund, and I met Yvonne Ward at Bush road races, we had a great chat about the fund, and I explained to her what I intended doing, I kept in touch with Yvonne throughout the time i was raising the money, just to keep her up to speed on the project. Most of the money collected came from the motor cycle fraternity”.
Left to Right; Sheila Sinton, Jan Simms, Lauren McCoy and Yvonne Ward
Group Photo, Thanks to Roy Adams, Antrim Media
Sunday, August 9th, along with her family and friends, Lauren headed off to Garvagh where the “Wild Geese Parachute Club” are based, The the 21 year old was soon to achieve something that would benefit the motor cycle charity.
“Regarding the Jump itself, I was really excited about it, I don’t think I got time to be nervous!. The weather was good, and after a briefing, we watched a DVD, and before I knew it, along with Five other jumpers, we were on our way to the small plane. It would be another 10 mins before i would make the jump, as the plane circulated to find the correct area, Thirteen thousand feet up in the sky, and I was the first to make the jump!
Sheer Exlieration it was!!, It was free fall, at about 120mph for one minute, before the parachute opened, we then glided for about another ten minutes before landing, my First thoughts were “ I want to go straight back up again!”
With her mission completed, i asked her, would she really do it again?
“ Yes, I would certainly do it again, I would really love to raise the awareness of the INJURED RIDERS FUND, It is a Very good charity within the sport, but i don’t think enough people within, and outside the sport, really know about, or understand the purpose of it”
For her efforts, Lauren raised £2277.80, but costs of £200 were taken out for the jump, so the Injured Riders Fund has benefitted by £2077.80 by the brave Cookstown lassie.
Lauren would like to say a special Thanks to Nigel Moore (not the racing Nigel Moore!) for his help in organizing the proceedings, to her family and friends for their support, Yvonne Ward for her encouragement, to EVERYONE who sponsored her, because, it was with their support, that the effort was made worthwhile.
Injured Riders Fund; What is it?
The Injured Riders Welfare Fund was started 5 years ago, by three enthuasitic and dedicated ladies; Yvonne Ward, Sheila Sinton and Jan Simm , they started out by doing shows, quiz sheets etc to raise money, 5 years on, and they are well known to the motor cycle riders/officials etc, who in turn make voluntary donations.
This year they have received a lot of donations in memory of Mark Young, The annual sponsored walk around the Tandragee circuit on the Sunday before the race, is also very popular, this walk seems to get bigger each year, not only does the fund benefit from it, but lots of newcomers to the circuit also take par, and it is another way of learning the track!,
The fund is in place to help riders who are seriously injured, and are hospitalised, The Inured Riders Fund gets money to them in the first few days after an accident, this helps if the family have to travel or get an hotel near the hospital. If and when there is more money in the kitty, The IRF also help out those not to badly injured.(ie, not hospitalised) .All the money raised is soley for the riders there are NO administration fees.
The fund helps ALL riders who are seriously injured, AND not just the those from Northern Ireland.
Lauren McCoy and Yvonne Ward were talking to Baylon McCaughey
Radio Irish Road Racers