The lockdown may have put a temporary pause on our day-to-day activities, but for a pensioner from Norwich, quarantine is no deterrent to her determination to raise money for Marie Curie cancer care in the UK.
Pensioner Betty Brown has spent many years raising money for charitable causes over the years. The 87-year-old contracted polio when she was just 19, and spent several months recovering in an iron lung. As a result, her mobility was severely reduced, making her derring-do fundraising adventures even more incredible. Most notably, this daredevil travelled by hot air balloon in a specially adapted vessel that was able to carry her wheelchair. She has also taken to the seas on a Tall Ship for charity.
Hot air ballooning is only one of the feats that Brown – a former deputy head teacher – has accomplished for charity over the years, which have been recognised with a number of honours; she helped to carry the torch as part of London’s 2012 preparations, and in 2017 was nominated for a Pride of Britain Award.
Though COVID-19 currently keeps Brown isolated, undeterred, she is currently doing laps of her garden in her wheelchair to raise money for cancer charities until such time that she can take to the skies, or the seas again.
Many people of different ages and with different ability-needs also enjoy taking to the skies, whether for charity or not. Hot air balloon adventures over Bath, Bristol or Gloucester will be as popular as ever once we can finally get out of lockdown.
