Most people assume the elderly are docile, feeble, even frail as many of them are content to garden, knit, or spend time with their loved ones. This is just not the case for 85-year-old octogenarian Trish Wagstaff.
No, Mrs. Wagstaff is spending her retirement setting records and entertaining people.
As a result, she has raised a total of $150,000 for charity.
Mrs. Wagstaff has spend the last decade performing stunts including paragliding, swimming with sharks, and skydiving. She has even dared to try her hand at wing walking.
Mrs. Wagstaff showed interest in these daredevil activities about a year after she became a widow. She claims her husband would never have allowed her to try these stunts if he was still alive.
However, Trish Wagstaff loves a little danger in her life. It seems to be beneficial to her health! In actuality, Trish is no stranger to danger. In fact, for many years, the former military mom lived in actual war zones while her husband was deployed. Her husband of over forty years was a major in the Scots Guards.
During his time in the military, Trish and her children, Sheena and Keith, literally lived in the middle of war zones. When Trish, Peter, and their children lived in Cyprus, war broke out between the Greeks and Turks in the region. In fact, Trish remembers the warring factions firing within yards of Keith and Sheena’s grammar school.
Trish says the guns were real, and the bullets were definitely authentic as well. She recalls imminent danger for herself and her children. Always indomitable, Mrs. Wagstaff figures if she can survive that kind of terror, she can conquer her fears in regards to heights and flying.
Trish claims that the daredevil stunts she loves to participate in are no more dangerous than crossing the street in traffic. The Appleton, Oxon native started her flirtation with danger when she swam with sharks at the Blue Planet Aquarium. Her son Keith was there taking pictures of the event.
Mrs. Wagstaff believes her children are more nervous than she when it comes to her hair-raising stunts. In addition to swimming with sharks, paragliding, and wing walking, Trish made a point to ride on the longest zip-wire in all of Europe. Mrs. Wagstaff found herself abseiling from 100-meter Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth not too long ago. Mrs. Wagstaff has received compensation for her death-defying acts; however, she donates this money to various charities.
She urges all retirees to join her in getting out and being active. In 2002, she had a hip replacement. She didn’t stay down for long, however! For Trish Wagstaff, life is about being young at heart and living life to the fullest – from a plane or on the ground.
If you are just as awed by this granny’s persistence and fearlessness as we are, give her story a SHARE and be sure to check out Great Heros for more inspirational stories!
Source: The Mirror
