DRAKEWALLS’ little Co-op store is punching above its weight by raising more than £13,000 for the charity Mind and coming top out of 22 stores around for its fundraising efforts.

The total received a significant boost when six of the staff jumped out of a plane at 15,000 ft for a charity skydive, two of whom had not even flown in an aeroplane for more than 25 years.

Sarah Yeoman, Kelly Turner, Samantha Elliot, Carla Fraser, Nikita White and Kelsey (surname withheld) raised £4,057 and called their skydive at Dunkeswell ‘an experience of a lifetime’.

Store manager Barbara Worth said: ‘I think they are all amazing. I wasn’t brave enough to do it so I drove them there and back. They are just brilliant.’

Store community champion Samantha Elliot, who was one of the skydivers, said for a small store Drakewalls raised a lot of money and had a lot of community support.

‘We had the largest team from one store take part in the skydive,’ she said. ‘There were 17 taking part from all across the South West. We were all from Co-op doing it for Mind.

‘We are always raising money for different causes. I used to do a lot of charity work with my mum for Macmillan and I have had my head shaved twice now, once for Macmillan and once for Mind.’

Sam said the run up to the skydive was quite nerve-wracking.

‘We were jumping tandem with the instructors so we had to just get on with it — they just lift you up and throw you out,’ she said.

‘We didn’t have time to think about it or change our minds. The instructors were amazing and so was the experience.

‘We all really enjoyed it — I had not been in a plane since I was eight and Sarah was in a similar situation so it was quite a big thing for us.’

The rest of the money for Mind was raised by a summer fair, raffles, headshaves and flower arrangements created by Co-op assistant Sarah White.

Sarah’s flowers became a bit hit over the Christmas period when she used flowers that were perfectly ok but could no longer be sold on the shop floor in festive arrangements and sold for around £3 each.

People bought them as gifts for family and friends and each week scores of arrangements went on display in the shop window and on the shop floor.

Sarah’s co-workers and neighbours let her cut greenery from their gardens and she sourced extra material from the hedgerow adding flare to the bouquets and arrangements and raised hundreds of pounds.

Barbara said she was very proud of her staff and the store which for a small shop had a big heart.