Brave Spinnaker Tower abseil by Rotarian for charity

A brave, determined Rotarian from Bournemouth came to Gunwharf, Portsmouth on a hot, balmy Sunday lunchtime to mark the end of his year as Director General (responsible for) for 60+ clubs across southern England by abseiling from the top of Spinnaker Tower to raise funds and awareness for two causes very close to him, Rotary (one of the world’s largest and most successful global and local, ie, Southern England, membership and humanitarian service organisation) and Helpful Hounds (helping to change the lives of young people and their families through providing highly trained assistance dogs)

Richard Burnett is said Rotarian, an early-70s individual coping superbly with a cancer diagnosis that continues to challenge him but he continues to manage and keep at bay.

With his wife, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and others watching, necks craned to the 328 foot (100 metre) launch pad, a diminutive figure in a bright yellow T-shirt made his way up. At 12 noon the yellow figure appeared, swung off the pad just to the side, someone else had already started their descent, and slowly started to move down the side of the tower, very slowly at first but then getting a bit quicker as he approached the bottom in a tad over seven minutes to a round of applause from family, friends and sundry other people in restaurants, walking around etc.

When he returned to earth, a very relaxed and smiley Richard was like the cat with a huge bowl of cream, and fair play to him

A lovely day in the sunshine, a personal achievement, awareness of two valued organisations raised, lots of smiles

A big thank you to Tony Sammut and Josh Jeram of Gunwharf Quays, and Sonia of Spinnaker Tower, for making sure the event took place exactly as planned

For more information on Rotary, please go to RotarySEHampshire.co.uk

For more information on Helpful Hounds, please go to [email protected]

Ken Ebbens

President, Southsea Castle Rotary Club