'Cheeky' 95yo celebrates another birthday jumping out of a plane

Gold Coast aged care resident skydives for 95th birthday Betty Gregory doesn't know any other 95-year-olds who celebrate their birthday the way she does — by jumping out of a plane. This year marked the sixth time Ms Gregory has been airborne on her birthday, after she first took flight at age 80. Even a recent move to a nursing home couldn't keep the great-great grandmother grounded. "I thought, 'You only live once and 95 is just a number, so why not make the most of it?' And that's what I'm trying to do,"Ms Gregory said. "I just live one day at a time and anything I feel like doing, I do it." Ms Gregory said she decided to downsize after living alone in her high-rise apartment for the past 26 years. "It was right on the beach and I had a beautiful view from the balcony up to Surfers Paradise and I was really happy with that view," Ms Gregory said. "But the point is, as you get to 95 you begin to be able to do less and less, competently anyway." Ms Gregory now has daily assistance with personal care and uses a walking frame to get around her new home. However, getting older won't stop her from jumping out of a plane for her birthday again next year. "My friends are used to me doing things that are rather unconventional," Ms Gregory said "I'm not your usual 95-year-old, I'm afraid to say. I'm rather cheeky." Melinda Griffiths, general manager of the southern Gold Coast facility where Ms Gregory now lives, said she was proof that life doesn't stop when someone moves into residential care. "I think it just shows that there is so much more that actually happens in aged care than what people maybe believe or have misconceptions about." Ms Griffiths said elderly people, especially those in aged care, should be encouraged to do what they love. "This is just the start of another journey … and it's important for us to take the opportunities to try new things, to make sure that we're still involved in the community, understand what they like, what their passions are," she said. "We go to the football, we go to the AFL … it's about living their best life." Ms Gregory's son, Jim Gellately, 70, said his mother has been active her whole life and is always open to trying new things. "We've got video after video after video of her doing different things, entertaining people," he said. "And although she's not doing too much of that now, she gets all this notoriety from jumping out of the plane. Everybody speaks to her, which she loves." Mr Gellately said he and his two sisters would happily support their mother to go skydiving again, as long as she received medical clearance. "We've got no worries. We've never tried to talk my mum out of it. "Honestly, if the doctor says it's all right to do it, let them do it. "So I figure, as long as you can just lift your knees up when they land, that's about all you've got to do, really."