Carrick-on-Suir wheelchair user parachute jumps from 13,000 feet 

Carrick-on-Suir pensioner and wheelchair user Paddy O'Dwyer has been unable to walk for 15 years but that didn't stop him parachuting from an aeroplane 13,000 feet above the earth last Saturday. 

The 67 year-old from 44 Kickham Street, Carrick-on-Suir, completed the feat most able bodied people would be too terrified to do at the Irish Parachute Club on the Bog of Allen in Co. Offaly. 

He described the experience that included free falling at 135mph before pulling the parachute chord as "brilliant".  But he admits he was very nervous just before plunging from the plane attached to an experienced parachuter from the Irish Parachute Club.

"I was looking forward to it up to an hour before the jump and then I started to get butterflies in my stomach. I said to myself 'I have got this far now and I am going the whole way'," he recalled. 

The scariest bit for Paddy was the jump from the plane.  "The tandem parachuter I was attached to talked to me the whole way down and he gave me the chords of the parachute to pull. It was a great experience."

The retired carpenter did the jump to raise funds for the Irish Wheelchair Association group he belongs to based at the Nano Nagle Community Resource Centre in Carrick-on-Suir. 

"Our current bus is very old and frequently breaks down so we are trying to fundraise to get a new bus. We have raised €25,000 so far and the bus will cost about €60,000." 

The bus is vitally important for Paddy and his fellow IWA members in Carrick-on-Suir as it transports them on weekly outings and to monthly fishing trips. 

"It's a great service. I am living in the centre of Carrick-on-Suir and get out a good bit, but for a lot of the members these outings are their only day out." 

Paddy has so far raised €1,050 for the new IWA bus and was one of five wheelchair users who did the parachute jump on Saturday for the Irish Wheelchair Association.  

Carrick-on-Suir postman Seamus Walsh, who is not a wheelchair user, also did the jump to raise funds for the charity.

Paddy  is delighted he completed the challenge and landed safely. 

"I was proud of myself. A lot of the other parachute jumpers were more scared than I was but I said 'I am going ahead with it which ever way I land'. But I don't think I will go back and do it again," he added.