Malcolm Dean, 76, from Downton near Salisbury has raised £3,700 for the Taxi Charity
The Taxi Charity was delighted to receive a donation of £3,700 from Malcolm Dean who this summer made his first parachute jump in France.
Malcom, 76, from Downton near Salisbury has been fundraising for charities for 44 years but this was the first time he had done a parachute jump. In Normandy for the D-Day commemorations, Malcolm had initially hoped to parachute into Ranville, as near to Pegasus Bridge as allowed, to recreate a drop that 19-year-old Danny Lyons did on 6 June 1944, as a member of 6th Airborne. Unfortunately, the jump had to be diverted to Le Havre but, as originally planned, Malcolm completed the jump from 12,000ft wearing the Denison smock that Danny had worn 78 years ago on D-Day.
Malcolm said: “I was fortunate to become good friends with Danny Lyons and I wanted to ensure that all those WWII veterans wishing to make the journey back to Normandy or the Netherlands are still able to. I completed my first parachute jump on 5 June and have split the final fundraising total of £7,400 equally between the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans and British Normandy Memorial. In July, I was thrilled to be invited to present a cheque at the Taxi Charity’s annual day trip for veterans to Worthing and I am delighted to announce that despite initially presenting them with a cheque for £3,200 at the event, I have received more money and the final donation was £3,700.”
Ian Parsons, London cab driver and Taxi Charity chairman, said: “The Taxi Charity is wholly reliant on donations, so we were delighted when Malcolm told us of his plans to raise funds for us. The money he has raised will be put towards a future trip to take veterans to the continent for acts of remembrance. The pandemic hit our fundraising plans hard so if anyone else might like to consider doing a challenge to support us, we would love to hear from them.”
If you would like to discuss raising funds for the Taxi Charity, please email info@taxicharity.org or visit www.taxicharity.org/fundraising.