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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Paula Cocozza

A new start after 60: I dreamt of paragliding for 30 years. When I took to the skies at 80 I felt completely free

Margaret Thompson, preparing to go paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland
‘You feel like you are up in heaven’ … Margaret Thompson, preparing to go paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland Photograph: Handout undefined

After their three children grew up and left home, Margaret Thompson and her husband, Kenneth, stretched their legs together on walking holidays in Switzerland. In Interlaken, year after year, they would head up the mountain and watch the paragliders launch themselves into the sky. Back in town, in a large park, they watched them return to earth. “Some day I’d love to do that,” Thompson told Kenneth.

But there was always so much to do in Interlaken. Besides, Thompson didn’t know if Kenneth would have enjoyed it. “He was not so keen on heights as I was,” she says. So she continued to watch the gliders take flight and land.

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