If you made it to age 101, many people would be ready to just put their feet up.
Not if you’re Irene O’Shea. The Adelaide great grandmother, 101, has become the oldest person in the world to skydive and jump out of a plane – at 101 and 39 days.
The risk-taking, adventure-loving grandmother plunged from the South Australian sky at an impressive 14,000 feet – all the while keeping a firm smile on her face.
Adelaide great grandmother, Irene O’Shea, 101, has become the oldest person in the world to skydive and jump out of a plane – at 101 and 39 days
The risk-taking, adventure-loving grandmother plunged from the South Australian sky at an impressive 14,000 feet – all the while keeping a firm smile on her face
Speaking to Today Extra ahead of the world-beating dive, Ms O’Shea said: ‘I haven’t a secret. I just live my life. I’ve no secret.’
She was raising money for Motor Neurone Disease – a cause close to her heart, after her daughter passed away from the disease several years ago.
‘This is a way to raise money. We must get a cure for this disease,’ she said.
In her dive, Ms O’Shea accelerated to 220 kilometres per hour – a small feat for a woman who still drives, lives by herself and doesn’t wear glasses.
Prior to her beating the world record, the record was set by UK-based Vernon Hayes, who jumped 15,000 feet from a plane earlier this month when he was 101 and 38 days old.
Speaking to Today Extra ahead of the world-beating dive, Ms O’Shea said: ‘I haven’t a secret. I just live my life. I’ve no secret’
In 2016, Irene O’Shea became the oldest person to ever skydive in South Australia when she marked her 100th birthday with a history-making jump
Prior to her beating the world record, the record was set by UK-based Vernon Hayes, who jumped 15,000 feet from a plane earlier this month when he was 101 and 38 days old
‘I did a tandem jump from 14,000 feet and it was really unbelievable,’ Ms O’Shea said on TV recently
The great-grandmother of 11 is pictured celebrating her 100th birthday in 2016
Ms O’Shea paid for the first dive out of her own pocket, so all funds raised were donated straight to the MND Association in South Australia
This isn’t the first time the energetic granny has performed a history-making jump.
Ms O’Shea, who is a mother-of-two, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of 11 children, wowed her family when she jumped from a plane in 2016 – her 11 great-grandchildren looking on anxiously.
Speaking on a recent ABC episode of You Can’t Ask That, Ms O’Shea said it was the most ‘remarkable’ thing she had done.
‘I did a tandem jump from 14,000 feet and it was really unbelievable,’ she said.
‘I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to doing another one.’