Women take on skydive to support boss with cancer

TWO hairdressers will complete a tandem skydive for charity to support their boss who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

Grace Lawrence, 27, and Nicki Walker, 41, have each worked for Mari Kernan, 51, at Intensions Hair Salon in Wood Lane for more than 10 years.

Last October, Mrs Kernan was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and in December started a course of chemotherapy treatment, which finished last month.

Miss Lawrence, who grew up in the village, said: “Doing a skydive has always been on my bucket list but I always said that I would have to do it for charity.

“When our boss got diagnosed with breast cancer I wanted to do something and I chose a skydive. When Mari found out what we were doing, she just lost the plot and was very emotional.

“I’m petrified of heights and I’m petrified of flying so it’s going to be a great experience,” she joked.

Miss Lawrence then enlisted her colleague to join her for the 10,000ft jump, which they will undertake in Salisbury on Sunday, June 1.

Miss Walker, who lives in Reading, said that the nearest thing she has done to skydiving was a high-ropes course.

She said: “At the moment I’m quite excited but I know that on the day, once we get to the edge of the plane, I think that will be my biggest challenge.

“I’ve done a high-ropes course before in the trees and that was scary enough.

“I doubt Mari will be able to be there, because she has got surgery coming up next month so she’ll be in recovery at that point. I think we’ll have to video call her or get a video for her somehow.”

Miss Lawrence will be watched on by parents Kevin and Ali and sister Leah, 30, while Miss Walker will be supported by her fiancé, Paul, and children Phoebe, 20, and Rhys, 18. Miss Lawrence said that there will be a “landing party” to celebrate following the dive, which will “definitely include wine”. She said: “I’m trying a bit of shock therapy.

“People always say to me ‘Oh, no, you’re not going to do that’ and so I think, ‘Yeah, I will’. I’ve booked it now, so I have to do it.

“We’re going to have a ‘landing party’ which will definitely include wine. I have a few family members that have taken days off work to come and see it.”

The hairdressers have now raised more than £2,000 for cancer charity Macmillan, which they said has supported Mrs Kernan since her diagnosis and is an “all-round” charity that supports families who are impacted by all types of cancers. Miss Walker said: “Cancer just impacts everyone, doesn’t it? It’s not picky about who it chooses. Macmillan is just an all-rounder, rather than just doing it for breast cancer.

“I don’t think that there is one person who hasn’t had it or knows somebody who has and everyone we have spoken to has been touched by the illness in some way.

“Macmillan does a lot to care for patients, they care about people as well as the research side of it. Mari said that they have been brilliant in supporting her since her diagnosis.

“We initially said we would aim to raise £1,000, which we thought was a lot, and we thought we would have to top it up ourselves. But now think we’ve got more than £1,000 on the Just Giving page and about £2,000 in total.

“We’ve had so much support from the community who know Mari really well from the salon.”

Mrs Kernan, who is from Goring, has owned the salon for 12 years. She said that the support of her employees helped her “push through”.

She said: “After I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, everything seemed to be going in slow motion and when I started my first chemotherapy treatment it was so overwhelming that this would be my new life to beat the cancer.

“So when Nicki and Grace said they were raising money for Macmillan by skydiving on my behalf, it got me very emotional.

“They are both amazing young ladies and also very mad. Thank you to both of them for helping me push on through and helping many other people facing cancer. Thank you also to all the nurses and doctors at Macmillan at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.”

To donate, visit www.just
giving.com/page/gracenicki