Derrick Targett completed a skydive in September 2021 and raised over £4,000 for Alzheimer`s Research UK. Derrick was inspired to do this after losing his beautiful wife to dementia. More than 850,000 people are living with this terrible disease in the UK.

Derrick said : “to all of you who donated to the skydive -  thank you for your generous donations. Now I want to do a Wing Walk at Church Fenton Airfield near York on Saturday 17th Sept 2022.

Church Fenton was the R.A.F. station where I was stationed for the first six months of my National Service in the R.A.F. Police, from 1960 -62. I was 22 years old, and during the six months I was stationed there, many a time I wanted to fly out of Church Fenton. Now, more than 60 years later, I will fly out on a wing and a prayer!

 I started courting my Beautiful Denise when we where 17 years old, I knew her before I met her - she was the one I was searching for. We married in 1959 when we were 21. We have had a wonderful life together, worked hard, been successful in what we did, built up businesses with the help of fantastic employees. All this time my wife kept me in check, never allowing me to go over my head with rash schemes , I was the ideas man.

In 2000 we retired and had several good years. Then in 2008 Denise developed Alzheimer`s , and from 2009 the impact became apparent. Denise had always been a vibrant, caring, beautiful person who was always there for everyone with help and advice. In a short time scale she became unable to make decisions or recognize any of us.

In 2013, after a Hospital admission, my Denise  needed to go into a E.M.I. unit. My two daughters and our Doctor insisted that they would lose both of us if I continued to look after Denise at home.  Going into a care home was a wake up call for me, and in the 4 years Denise was there I spent 3,600 hours there.  I saw the devastation that Alzheimer`s causes. There were 21 residents, all with different stages of the disease, and I saw the sadness that is placed on families.

This is why I am determined to raise money for research to help prevent this from happening to any other person.

I am looking forward to the Wing Walk . In 2020 I flew a spitfire at Biggin Hill ,in 2021 I completed the skydive, and now the Wing Walk is another experience with fundraising for dementia research being my motivation. “