Psyching yourself up as you count down the days and the hours to that moment when you will stand by the door of the plane and get ready to jump from a height of 10,000ft. A scary time surely - but then, at 7pm the night before the jump, you are told it isn't going to happen as scheduled. That was the case on Friday night for Kilworth girl Laura Kenny, Aoife Ladd (Castletownroche) and Ciara Smyth (Kildorrery) who had scheduled their charity dive for Saturday.

The weather had taken its toll for a Saturday jump so they had to endure another 24 hours wait. Sunday was D-day and while Laura had gone through the experience before, having jumped from 15,000ft while living in New Zealand, Aoife was probably the most nervous of the three.

"When we got the phone call on Friday night  to say it was cancelled due to bad weather, we were disappointed as we were all geared up for it," Laura said.

However, when Sunday came round, the adrenalin was high and the three girls took off just after 1pm to fall for 45 seconds at 120mph and then glide the remaining 10,000ft. Aoife's thoughts just before leaving plane were 'no going back now'.

Laura said she was excited to experience Ireland from a different point of view.

"Each of us had a professional tandem attached to us but left the plane within 45 seconds of each other.  The view was awesome on the way down. Landing was not difficult as our tandem landed the parachute - we simply lifted our legs," Laura said.

Ciara and Aoife headed home after the jump while Laura went for a meal with her mam who was celebrating her birthday. 

"We raised an incredible €4,751 which will be evenly split between the two charities SAFE in Glanmire and AWARE. We would like to thank everyone who donated, those who helped us out with the various fundraisers and the venues that accommodated us," Laura concluded.

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