Twenty-one people –
and a jelly called Hayley (pictured right) – abseiled 100ftdown the front of theWomen's Centre atOxford's John RadcliffeHospital to helpraise £4,200 for theNational KidneyResearch Fund.

Going...

When I arrived earlyon Sunday afternoon Ididn't think it wasgoing to be too difficult.

It didn't look thathigh, and each abseilerbefore me seemed todo it so easily.

I had an equipmentcheck and some basictraining on how tofeed the rope throughwhile abseiling down.

Kidney patient IanFinnie and I were takenup in a lift to levelseven by two helpers.

Then we had to go upan iron ladder to the roof.

Even when I got there I wasn'tthat nervous. It was whenthe man at the top called meover for my turn that my legsturned to jelly, my arms to pipecleaners, and my stomach to abutterfly-cage.
It was raining and it waswindy.

As I walked towards theedge, I could see my parents,family, friends, and our photographerMarc several milesbelow in the car park.

Going...

Once attached to the ropes, Ihad to bend down and slipunder a barrier and slowlywalk backwards, one step at atime, until I was fully extendedand taking the strainon the rope.

It was a horriblefeeling. I kept feelingthe rope go slack,and every time I wassupposed to leanback I would instantlystand back upagain.

It took an agefor me to pluck upthe courage to stepoff the edge.

Myfriends waiting to gonext thought I wasn'tgoing to do it.

But I did.

As Iwent over the edge, Istayed focused onthe helper at the top.The rain had madethe walls really slippyso I just took veryslow steps until I wasin my stride. Then itwas easy and I reallyenjoyed it.

Gone!

It was such a reliefto get back on terra firma withoutany firmer terror.

My hands werestill shaking, but the buzz wasso great I wanted another go.

I watched my friends –Hannah Carthy, Karen Pugh,Suzie White, and Caroline Ryde– and my brother Rory abseildown, and then Hannah and Iwent up again.

I still have a fear of heights,but I know I can conquer it.

And I raised £215.50 from sponsorship.