Now at 75, the Ballarat resident wants to do it all again.

While the extreme sport had always been on her bucket list, Ms Farrelly said it was a conversation with a fitness trainer, a former skydiving instructor, which inspired her to take action.

As a birthday present to herself, Ms Farrelly realised her dream four years ago when she parachuted over the beaches of Torquay. 

“It was exhilarating,” she said of the experience.  

“I was nervous as anything. The initial jumping out was the moment where I thought, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ But the moment I free fell it was just brilliant.

“I shut my eyes for the first couple of seconds and then opened them and the view over the ocean was brilliant.”

Ms Farrelly said while there were no precautions and her children did not have any concerns, her husband originally decided to stay home rather than watch only to change his mind in case something went wrong. 

On the same day as her skydiving adventure, the active grandmother, who loves boogie boarding and cycling, used the adrenaline rush to go surfing for the first time. 

Ms Farrelly plans to go skydiving again when the weather improves in either December or January. 

“It’s something you need to try out at least once no matter how old you are,” she said. 

“Age is nothing, age shouldn’t hold you back. You have to give everything a go and just enjoy things.”

Changing perceptions around the elderly undertaking risk-taking activities will be the basis of a major discussion when aged care expert Professor Joseph Ibrahim brings his dignity of risk forum to Ballarat next week. 

Dignity of risk is based around the concept of allowing the elderly or people with some form of impairment to pursue an activity that might lead to harm but would provide them with enjoyment or a sense of accomplishment. 

The activities could range from extreme sports or overseas travel to taking a walk in the garden unassisted or eating a favourite food considered a choking hazard.

Dr Ibrahim said the decision to push the boundaries as a senior citizen should be no different to an adventurer’s choice to put their lives at risk to climb Mount Everest. 

“When people get older all we are worried about is making sure that they are safe rather than making sure that they are happy,” he said. 

“In a sense it is trying to remind people that life is a trade-off and the trade-off should still be there when you’re older.

“It comes down to the general question of what is the point of being alive if you are not doing the things you want to do. It doesn’t make any sense to be really safe or to put things off while sitting around and waiting to die.”

Working in the field of geriatric medicine, Dr Ibrahim said his experiences and interactions with patients have helped shaped his view a safety-first mentality is not necessarily the best option. 

He said what could be achieved was often underestimated and the reward from such experiences included having a sense of independence and control, improved strength and a decrease in the likelihood of depression.

“When somebody really wants to do something they will try harder, they will do more to try and achieve that and sometimes they’re happy to fail doing it than to never have tried,” he said. 

“When you’re able-bodied you tend not to understand what it is like to not have your independence. But if they have Parkinson’s disease or an amputation, just being able to go out into the garden alone and come back could essentially be their Everest.

“The downside is should they fall and break a hip you’re left trying to explain to yourself or to others whether it was really worth it.”

The free forum presented by Mercy Health will be held on Tuesday, October 23, at Federation University – SMB Campus from 6-7pm as part of Ballarat Seniors Festival, which is taking place throughout October.

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