'I am a bit nervous about it' 80 year old in Shrewsbury gets ready for a plane wing walk.

Shropshire Star

We meet an 80 year old man who is hoping to raise money for the MS Society, a condition his late wife had. To do so he will be up in the sky as he gets ready for his Wing Walk.

Transcript

00:00so we're here in shrewsbury with ken ken davis and um can you hold a picture there of yourself

00:08and you're she's no longer with us sadly but your beautiful partner daphne yes yes um so

00:15daphne passed away two three years ago now um three years ago three years ago and her her illness

00:24has inspired you to do something crazy you got something crazy coming up fill us in what's

00:29happening i have indeed well for some time though even before um 10 years ago in my 70th birthday

00:36i had contemplated taking the uh mad idea of doing a wing walking which is uh where i'm strapped to the

00:44top of a biplane and up i go in the sky and i wanted to do it on behalf of daphne and and who had

00:53suffered with ms for many a year um way back from the 1970s um a lovely lady but it didn't happen at

01:03that time because uh unfortunately she also was in the early stages of dementia but now i'm in my

01:1080th year i want to do it and i'm looking forward to it i'm not going to say i'm apprehensive i will

01:17be apprehensive but i'm going to have a go so how are you with heights generally heights don't bother

01:23me yeah i've done i've done hill walking and climbing mountains and things like that so that

01:29doesn't bother me you ever done a parachute jump no no that may be another option but then again

01:34i realize that certain things when you're 80 they don't they have a cutoff point and they don't

01:40always do it yeah i think i mean both of them sound scary but i think winged walking is the

01:46sound of the scary one out of the two of them you know parachute jump and wing walking so when and

01:51where will this event take place it's going to happen in kent um i know obviously i live in

01:55shropshire but my daughter lives in essex and so it's nearer for her to come and see me and i'm doing

02:02it at a little airdrome in kent called headcorn aerodrome um and it's going to happen on friday the 25th

02:09of july which is not far away um and it's going to be crazy so do you have to do anything preparation

02:17for it have you had to kind of you know well obviously i've contacted them and and they've

02:22sent me an email and uh it doesn't seem to be anything that i need to do beforehand obviously i

02:29have to be in reasonable health which i do consider i'm in reasonable health um and uh probably they

02:36give you a kind of briefing well undoubtedly they give you a briefing beforehand yeah and then off

02:41you go cool so yeah you'll be um they'll be trembling on the day i'm sure but that's all part

02:47of the fun yeah the only the only slight problem is we've now got a bit of rain today which is unusual

02:55we haven't had it for a long long while and obviously if there's rain on the day it may not

03:00happen yeah so i'm hoping that there's no rain but if it does have rain on the day then maybe i can

03:06rebook yeah they normally reschedule yeah so daphne had ms for a large part of her life you'll be

03:14raising money for the ms society and and daphne had she she battled on with it didn't she really

03:19didn't let it be yeah she didn't let it own her um she was lucky in some respects compared to some

03:25people who are unfortunately suffer ms she wasn't totally disabled um apart from the lesser part of

03:34her life and it did affect her quite badly um but she used to carry on with her life and and do

03:40things and occasionally she might stumble and fall to the ground but she just fell off and picked

03:45herself up yeah yeah and she had when did dementia come into her life then when did that start

03:52um probably well about in in the latter seven in the early 70s we saw strange things she was

04:02hafted with with her a way she's conducting herself yeah and we had it investigated and

04:08first of all the uh medics thought it was the ms that was causing it yeah but then they later

04:15didn't diagnose it as dementia and unfortunately that was uh her passing yeah so how have you been

04:22coping since then i've been very lucky i've moved away from where we lived i've come into frewsbury we

04:28used to live in the country before then i do miss the countryside but i've made my life here

04:33in in frewsbury um it's convenient to get about yeah and and i feel well in myself and uh you know i'm

04:41lucky for that uh but uh she's always in my mind i'll never forget her and in terms of fundraising so

04:48you're old school there's all this technology and this and that but you were going around with a

04:52sponsorship form weren't you tapping doors and you know a paper form local neighbors and anybody who

04:57knows me friends and people like that yes and then somebody suggested get get in the modern world get

05:05the tech going and so now i understand there's a there's a paypal account have you got the details

05:09there and we could what's the so if people wanted to get involved and help um help ken with his

05:16fundraising for the ms society if people want to make a donation which i'll be much appreciated to

05:22yeah they need to pay into my paypal account yeah which is at the at sign yeah ken davis capital k

05:31coupled to d and the stavis without an e d-a-v-i-s do not put an e in it 899 so it's at ken davis

05:41899 great stuff well let's hope we can get some money there in in um and paying tribute to daphne

05:48along the way and we wish you all the best you're braver man than me ken well uh maybe maybe well you

05:55haven't done it yet but if you do it ken you're a braver man than me so yeah good luck on the day

06:00there ken well done sir okay

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