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The High Access Rescue Team help raise £30,000 for two local charities!
Around 160 brave fundraisers, including Erskine Hospital supporter John Smeaton and cheerleaders from the Scottish Rockettes put their nerves to the test to overcome the dizzy heights of the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow and help raise vital funds for both Erskine Hospital and The Fire Fighters Charity.
Taking part in the event – dubbed 'Dare to Dangle' – they bravely abseiled off the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow and helped to coin in an astonishing £30,000 for ex-servicemen and women, as well as injured firefighters.
Now Erskine chiefs have hailed all those brave souls who took part in the fundraising challenge.
Catriona Connelly, Erskine fundraiser, said: "Everyone at Erskine is overjoyed with the tremendous support the Dare to Dangle event received."
For more information, and to register for upcoming charity events, please visit: www.hartrescue.org.uk
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My adventure started when I received an email from Carole Anne requesting volunteers to take part in the Dare to Dangle Challenge at the Finnieston Crane. At that time, I don't think I was really aware of what the challenge was exactly… I knew it was for Erskine Hospital & The Fire Fighters Charity and I knew it was at the Finnieston Crane, but I didn't know what abseiling was. I had climbed the rock wall and completed the obstacle course at the Escape @ Braehead (don't laugh!) and I thought that it couldn't be much different… (Now you can laugh) Nevertheless, I emailed back and said I'LL DO IT without a second thought!
Well, after doing a bit of research on the internet I found some very interesting information... The Finnieston Crane is around 200ft high and it has a spiral steel staircase leading to the top… SOUNDS SCARY EH??
Then I found pictures of previous charity days and even people doing the abseil. My definition of abseiling would be using your legs to push off of a building and repelling down... However, I found out when you abseil down the crane you are basically just dropping down to the ground. What had I let myself in for??? To be fair it did state it was a controlled drop… but putting the word controlled, in front of drop, doesn't make it sound any less scary to me. And to make matters worse… I have always had a slight fear of heights! And when I say slight… I mean a BIG HUGE FEAR!
For some reason, I always seem to push myself into challenges and obstacles that have to do with heights. I must think that I will get over my fear if I just complete that next challenge, but it never happens!
Thus the cycle continues.
On the day of the event I was a nervous wreck. I met up with Carol, Daryl, Paula, and Lindsey at the Glasgow Fort and the girls seemed very optimistic and quite excited about the challenge. I on the other hand, was only keeping it together in front of the other girls because I didn't want to seem like such a big chicken! We all split into groups and got into our cars for the short journey to the Crane. I was secretly hoping for traffic so that I could have plenty of time to get myself prepared to get out of the car once we arrived!
But… there was no such luck! Lindsey and I were the first to arrive at the crane. As we drove up, I had a jolt of positive energy hit me and I thought this might actually be fun! Once we got out of the car and had a good look around, it seemed that the crane actually wasn't that high at after all and for some reason I began to tell myself that this would be easy! As we waited for the other girls to arrive, we took the opportunity to take some pictures with Blaze the Bear and get the low down on the abseil. We found out that Blaze was going to take part in abseil on Sunday, which gave me a little more piece of mind.
If the Bear can do it, Brooke can do it! Ha!
As the other girls started to arrive, we began the registering process.
We also took loads of pictures with the military, members from the organisations, as well as just about anyone else who would help us delay our doom. After delaying as long as we could, we all got into the queue and waited for our turn. Allana was probably the most positive out of the bunch at this point. She had her pom poms ready to go and was trying to figure out how she would be able to take them with her! There was plenty of time for her to devise a plan as the queue was quite long and the Charity Organisation was a little behind schedule. We were offered the option to come back the following week if we didn't want to wait, however we were there to get a job done! I certainly wasn't leaving without completing my challenge, besides, I wasn't sure if I would make it back the next week… (Too much time to chicken out)
After a long wait, it was time to get our gear on! Boy… did we look sexy or what! We all had to pull our hair back into buns so that it didn't get trapped in the line. The rule was, if your hair got caught during the abseil, someone would come down and cut it. Ah!!!!! No thank you! We all got strapped into our harness, pulled on our helmets and gloves, and posed for a couple of FAB pictures! Let's just say… the harness didn't exactly make your body look that great from behind! :) After a couple of safety checks and tightening of the harness we were ready for action. The Crane Escorts were originally taking 4 people up the crane at a time, however since there were 6 of us, they allowed us all to go up together.
They even used tie wraps to attach Allana's pom poms to her ankles! Too cute! While we were waiting on our escort to take us up the stairs, guess who showed up? Carole Anne! Woo Hoo! She was working at an event in another part of town and finished just in time to come and cheer us on!
Our escort arrived and we were off! Remember that steel spiral staircase I told you about? Well… that's what we walked up! There was something like 300 steps and they were nearly vertical! Ouch! The steps weren't what bothered us the most though… it was the view. Allana and Paula were nearly having panic attacks in the back because of the height. No wonder!
I made sure I was leading the way, since I am so brave… ha-ha… No, I made sure I was at the front so I could get off the crane the fastest! After making it to the halfway point we stopped for some photos and every one of us were tempted to turn right back around and walk back down the steps.
They should have made the abseil from the half way point… that was high enough! Honestly! This was also the point that Paula said, "there must be something wrong with us… normal people just don't do this!" She was totally right, by the way. We weren't Marines, Paratroopers, or Fire Fighters… we are just cheerleaders so what the heck were we doing?
We all pushed on and finally made it to the top. Phew! It was windy and cold, but it is Scotland after all. The views were great and our escort couldn't have been any nicer. I can't imagine what it must have been like for him to be stuck with a bunch of lunatics like us! It was then that I decided to sit down and mentally prepare myself for what was ahead – OK all I had to do was launch myself off of this crane!!!! Eeek I had another quiet word with myself… I told myself sitting up here wasn't that bad and I was getting quite used to the view… so the next step was to dropped from the crane on a rope? Just a rope? Oh no! And just like that the fear was back! Also, somewhere between the stairs and the top landing I managed to move not only myself, but Lindsey as well to the back of the line. Instead of going first, we were now going last! Someone must have tricked us!
Carol & Daryl were the first to take off. Come to think of it, I don't think I heard anything from them all day about being scared! However, they were surprising quiet all day, which doesn't usually happen! :) The rest of us were able to watch them going down and it seemed like they were enjoying their descent. They made it down safely and somehow this still did not help me feel any better about what we were about to do. Next, it was Allana! She had her pom poms attached to her ankles and was on a mission to get herself down from the crane! She definitely went a lot faster than I expected… but that is probably because I released that I was up next.
It was finally time for me to take my place to the platform. Gulp! I swear I was holding on for dear life to anything I could find and I could just imagine myself falling to the concrete below... SPLAT! Fortunately, that didn't happen!! I kept calm (well as much as possible), however I was shaking like a leaf! I told everyone that it was because I was freezing, and because it is Scotland I seemed to bluff them! J
Anyway, we were hooked up and ready to rock and roll. By this point I just wanted to get myself down as fast and as safe as possible! Unfortunately, once I stepped off the platform I froze! I kept repeating HOLY MOLY, which gave the Fire Fighters a giggle… it was good to know that someone was enjoying my pain! And as I repeated that phrase for the 100th time, Lindsey and I started to move down. With the supervision of the Fire Fighters, we controlled the pace that we moved at. We worked together to stay close to each other, as neither of us wanted to be left at the top alone! I don't know why we didn't want to be on our own, because we really didn't speak to each other on the way down. Actually, I am pretty sure that Lindsey tried to comfort me, but I was far too focused on getting myself back to the earth! As we placed our feet firmly on the pavement, I could not get out of my equipment fast enough! Carole Anne was at the end to meet us and to congratulate us on a job well done. We all did GREAT!!!!
Wow what a day! This was definitely one of the scariest things I have ever done, but I am so glad I was able to rise to the challenge and help such a worthwhile cause… I am so proud of myself. The event was it was a big success for both the Rockettes and for Erskine Hospital & The Fire Fighters Charity. So if you are an adventure seeker, I highly recommend taking part in something like this. However if you are like me, and a slight/BIG fear of heights… then you can always show your support by cheering on your friends on from the safety of the ground below!
Bye for now!!!
xx Brooke xx
     
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