Great-grandmother celebrated her 93rd birthday by skydiving
<p dir="ltr">A great-grandmother from the Gold Coast has proved that age is just a number, by celebrating her 93rd birthday by going skydiving. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Betty Gregory first got a taste for the thrill of being in the sky when she was just 17 and working in England's Royal Air Force.</p>
<p dir="ltr">She told <em><a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/today/queensland-great-grandmother-jumps-out-of-plane-to-celebrate-93rd-birthday/707b554c-f6e4-47a5-b63f-b05370bfaaad">Today</a></em>, "I was 17 and I was doing a photographic course where I had to go up in a plane to do some aerial photography training."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"I had to crawl past the pilot's legs, where they'd taken a panel out of the nose and installed this camera on a framework and I could see all the little fields with animals and cars on little tiny roads and I thought it would be very nice to do a jump."</p>
<p dir="ltr">After she landed safely on the ground, Betty tried to convince the pilot to take her back up and let her do a jump, but to no avail. </p>
<p dir="ltr">She put the idea on the back burner, vowing to herself to do the skydive at some stage in the future. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Fast forward a few decades, when Betty had settled on the Gold Coast and started a family, she began thinking of the skydive once more. </p>
<p dir="ltr">"I saw them landing on Kirra Beach and I thought, 'Now there's an idea, I'll do that for my 80th birthday,'" she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So she did, and she pledged to go again on her 85th birthday for her second skydive. </p>
<p dir="ltr">"I was going to do another one at 90, but COVID-19 happened and everything was cancelled," she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Then, for my 91st birthday, my son came up from Victoria and I asked if he also wanted to jump, he said 'well, I suppose if you can do it at 91, mum, I can do it at 68.'"</p>
<p dir="ltr">As Betty’s love for jumping out of planes grew, she decided not to wait until her 95th birthday to do it again. </p>
<p dir="ltr">"The numbers of my age are getting quite high, so I thought maybe I won't leave it for 95, I'll do it at 93 instead," she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Betty admitted she's even gotten friendly with the tandem jumper who lets her manoeuvre the parachute handles so she can spend a little bit longer sailing through the skies.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It's exhilarating, it really is - I really enjoy it," she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Today </em></p>
