VICAR’S wife Rachel Duff will throw herself out of a plane this month to raise money for a mission to Africa.

Rachel Duff practises her sky-diving technique with team members (l to r) Anne Cowdrey, Chris Richardson, Jon McCabe, Chris Cox, Mervyn Cowdrey and Vida Weaver

Rachel, whose husband Mike is the vicar of St Jude’s, Southsea, will join a team of eight church members to Togo in West Africa. in July. They’re working with the Christian charity Mercy Ships to help ensure some of the world’s poorest people have access to medical aid.

Africa Mercy, the charity’s flagship floating hospital and the world’s largest non-governmental medical ship, is in Togo for nine months. The team from St Jude’s will be based ashore helping the charity develop the infrastructure to allow local doctors and nurses to continue medical work when the ship leaves later in the year.

Each of the team needs to raise £1,200 each to cover flights, expenses, vaccinations and insurance for the 10-day trip.

The focus of the fundraising is a parachute jump by Rachel and fellow team member Mervyn Cowdrey on June 4. They’ll leap from 13,000ft with the Army Parachute Club at Netheravon.

Rachel said: “Jumping out of a plane will be a challenge, but the work that Mercy Ships does is so inspiring and life-changing for the people they treat, that it’s worth the challenge. I hope the jump will attract people’s attention and through it the work of Mercy Ships will get more widely known.”

Meanwhile, a separate team from St Jude’s will be heading out to the gypsy village of Slobozia in Romania this summer as part of the same Mission 2010 initiative.

Helen Barrell, Chris Cox and Jon McCabe will help with a building project to provide washing facilities and a kitchen, and will work with local children. This project is run by the charity Soapbox.

Helen visited in 2008 and helped to build an extra room on the pastor’s house, where he lives with his 11 children. Two hundred gypsies had been baptised in 2007, and Helen met one child who had slept in a sewer for 13 years.

They also need to raise £950 a head for flights, food and accommodation. If you can help with either project, please contact the church office on 023-9275 0442 or office@stjudes-southsea.org.uk