BRAVE staff from Dawlish College took a leap to raise money in support of a colleague’s charity. 

The team of intrepid teachers, teaching assistants and site support staff raised £3,200 by taking part in a fund-raising skydive in aid of Jay’s Aim.

The charity was set up in memory of college PE teacher Dan Osborne’s brother Jay who died, aged 28, of an undiagnosed genetic heart condition.

Dan’s colleagues, who live in Dawlish and Teignmouth, Val Marc, Emily Fitzgerald, Kev Brooks, Lorna Smith, Annette Moore and Bruce Sibley volunteered to jump out of the aircraft. 

Meanwhile, other friends and colleagues took part in Plymouth runs in aid of the charity.

Matt Blackwell, Sian Rice, Amy Reed, Emma Simmons and Katrina McGeever took part in the 10K run with Ann Jones, Joe Hornsby, Amanda Hemelik and Kate Bukowski running the half marathon. 

They have raised a further £600 for the charity.

Since Jay’s death, his family has worked to raise awareness, raise money and provide public defibrillators.

So far, the charity has supplied 150 defibrillators across Devon and Cornwall, with 20 in Newton Abbot and six in Dawlish.

As well as providing the life-saving equipment, the charity provides free CPR training and up to 10,000 people have benefited from this. 

Father-of-two Dan, who is also a college pastoral leader, explained: ‘As a charity, we have now trained 10,000 people to use a defibrillator and perform CPR.

‘But we also raise awareness of heart conditions in young people and encourage them to be screened.

‘We are trying to make sure people know about the risks take a more proactive approach to be tested.’

Jay’s Aim is this year’s Dawlish College charity.