And it was our Happy House kids who gave her the courage to do it.
Pauline, who is in Jane's sponsor family, says:
I
saw "Walking the Big One,at Blackpool
Pleasure Beach"
I set up my JustGiving page, emailed all my friends and relations and told anyone who
would listen about what I was doing and why.
I am quite a reticent person
really, but knowing it wasn’t about me but about the Happy House kids made it easier.
Someone said I was an inspiration, but I knew it wasn’t me; it was people
reading about what Sue Hayward had achieved that made them want to sponsor me.
And sponsor me they have, people’s generosity has been amazing. I had hoped to
collect £500 but have a final total of £800 plus some gift aid.
Prior
to the event I had been glued to the weather app on my phone, which eventually
settled, for that evening, on ‘It will be colder than you’d like’ and ‘You’ll
prefer it to be less windy’
It wasn’t wrong, but at least it wasn’t raining!
Driving
down the prom, planes were coming in to land at the airport, dropping below the
top of the Big One and they still looked very high up.
Eventually six of us congregated for the safety briefing. I was pleased to see that we were half and
half (I had thought it may be a male thing), ages ranged from 15 to mine – I
could certainly give them all a run for their money, age wise.
The
safety briefing included what would happen if someone wanted to abort the climb
– as it would necessitate being unclipped and manoeuvred passed everyone, I
decided that I would get up there no matter what.
After that it was into boiler suit, hardhat
and harness – at which point I knew exactly how the Christmas turkey must feel
before it is shoved in the oven.
Then the walk through a deserted Pleasure Beach, strangely quiet and eerie with deep shadows cast by the floodlighting –
it would make a brilliant setting for a who-done-it.
At the bottom of what is
technically referred to as the lift pull (I think it’s the bit that enables the
cars to get round the rest of the ride) our lanyards were clipped on to the
steel cable running up the ride.
‘Think of it as taking a dog for a walk and
just pull it behind you’, said our leader. Easier said than done, mine was one
that wanted to stop at every lamppost and was reluctant to move on, that was
the bit needed to pull it over the brackets. Then up we went, stopping at
150ft, for ‘the view’, an excuse I think to allow us, well me, to get my breath
back.
So far so good, then up to the summit at 235 feet.
Gosh it was windy,
cameras out and the photographing of the view began, it was brilliant, a lovely
clear sky and good views of the illuminations and Blackpool Tower changing colour.
It
did sway slightly, but at the briefing we had been told a necessity as, if it
was rigid it would snap. At that point I wasn’t scared, but did turn and move
around a bit gingerly, holding on to the handrail as well; though there was
absolutely no way I could have fallen off.
I did manage a wave to Mike who was
waiting on terra firma, he waved back, but he said later that he had no idea
who was waving as we all looked like red blobs, the reflection from the
aircraft warning light.
An
official photographer went up with us so we all had to pose for our photograph
before making our way down.
That was quite hard as the floodlights shining up
made the steps difficult to see, but soon we were back down and my adventure
was over. We were presented with our certificates, relinquished our harnesses
and sent on our way.
I felt so chuffed, inordinately pleased with myself and
couldn’t stop grinning all weekend. My calves were stiff the next day, even
though I had tried to do plenty of walking and swimming prior to the event. "
* A big thank you to Pauline for this tremendous effort and to all her family and friends who sponsored her.
* A big thank you to Pauline for this tremendous effort and to all her family and friends who sponsored her.
