'I lost the love of my life to a chronic lung condition - I want to help others'

A Nottinghamshire man who lost the love of his life to a chronic lung condition has completed a skydive in his partner’s memory.

Pete Colclough, a support worker at a residential care service in Mansfield, has recalled the moment he “looked up and said one last goodbye” to his partner Dave Holtham, before jumping from a plane at 16,000 ft.

Pete, 41, lost his partner Dave in December last year to the lung condition Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Bronchiectasis, which was exacerbated by contracting Covid a year before.

In the time before a vaccine became available, Pete was forced to take three months unpaid leave, rather than risk bringing the virus home to Dave.

Pete said: “For eight years his condition was typically well managed, he’d get regular chest infections but they would improve with antibiotics.

“That was until the Covid pandemic where he had to isolate at home and this had a big impact on his mental health, as well as his physical condition.

“I ended up taking three months unpaid leave to isolate with him as bringing the virus back home to him would have almost certainly been a life sentence for him pre vaccine.”

Sadly, despite the couple’s efforts, in December 2022 Dave contracted the virus, and was subsequently admitted to hospital suffering from Covid pneumonia. Over the next twelve months he underwent intensive treatment, which was heightened after a terrible decline in April 2023.

Pete said: “I feared that he’d push me away as his condition got worse, when in fact it was the total opposite. He put all his trust in me and I’d spend my days off visiting him and carrying out his care needs.

“Depending on how his health was, I’d take him out in a wheelchair to get some fresh air.”

But tragically, in November that year, the couple were told that the treatment had ceased working, and that there was no choice but to move Dave onto end-of-life care.

He died in December 2023, asleep in bed, with Pete by his side.

“I was so thankful that I had been with him when he died and that he wasn’t alone,” said Pete.

Losing the love of his life prompted Pete to do something to support a charity that helps people living with lung conditions, and their loved ones.

So he set up a charity giving page, and decided on a skydive to raise funds. And now, with the 16,000 ft skydive completed, he has raised £600 for Asthma and Lung UK, which also carries out research into serious lung conditions and lobbies for better lung health.

Steadying himself for the jump, Pete says he looked up to the heavens, held Dave in his mind for a final farewell, and leapt to the ground.

“I did the skydive in Dave’s memory but also to help others going through lung conditions. I chose a skydive as it was symbolic of why I was doing a sponsored event, falling from heaven and whilst up there in the plane, taking a moment to reflect and say goodbye. Before the jump, at 16,000ft, I looked up and said one last goodbye.”

To donate, go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/peter-colclough-1710884907884