Blind veteran with terminal cancer completes skydive

Mark Pile from Somerset said he wanted to complete the tandem skydive while he was still able to

A terminally ill blind veteran said completing a "bucket list" skydive was everything he "could have hoped for."

58-year-old Mark Pile, who is from Somerset and has terminal cancer, completed the tandem skydive in aid of Blind Veterans UK, the charity he credits for "saving his life."

Mr Pile, who served in the Light Infantry between 1984 and 1993, said without their support he "wouldn't be here today."

So far, he has raised over £3000.

Mr Pile said the experience was everything "he could have hoped for"

Strapped to a tandem instructor, Mr Pile experienced a few seconds of free fall before the parachute was opened and the descent to solid ground began.

On the experience of falling from 13,000 feet, the former driver, rifleman and bugler said: "The experience was everything I could have hoped for, the instructor was my eyes and explained everything that he could see on the way down."

"In the run up to the jump I became unwell with pneumonia but that didn't stop me, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," he added.

Mr Pile, who was registered blind in 2011, said he first noticed problems with his sight in 2000 when he was working as a driver.

Raising money for Blind Veterans UK, Mr Pile said giving back was important to him

He said he then went to the opticians and hospital where he found out he had amblyopia, a hereditary eye condition that causes a break down in how the brain and the eye work together.

From then on his eyesight gradually deteriorated.

Mr Pile said he took the news "really badly and did not go out for 10 years," before reaching out to Blind Veterans UK in 2012.

Mr Pile said the charity supported his passion for photography, organising photography weeks at the charity's centres and giving him the opportunity to photograph an event at the Tower of London.

Mr Pile who has terminal cancer, first noticed problems with his eyesight in 2000

Mr Pile said it was "wonderful that the charity", which organised the skydive for him on 28 May, was "still helping" him at this stage in his life.

He said: "Giving back is important to me; helping with the photography weeks and events used to be my way of paying back the charity that has helped me so much but I'm not able to do that anymore so this parachute jump has been my small way of saying thank you."