Skydiving is an experience that many young people wish to try in their lifetime, but for Kuan Brown, his dream of jumping out of a plane was never realised. Tragically, Kuan lost his life at just 18 years old from undiagnosed sepsis. In memory of Kuan, his mother Jolene and eight of his friends decided to honour his legacy by getting together to go skydiving on the two year ‘Angelversary’ of his passing.
According to Jolene, Kuan had always been adventurous. When he was just nine years old, they went paragliding while on holiday in Turkey, and Kuan loved it so much that he went up twice in one day. Ever since, skydiving had always been something he wanted to do; he’d even received a gift voucher for Christmas before he passed away but sadly he never got to redeem it.
For Kuan, he had another passion and a cause very close to his heart – Save The Rhino International – a rhino conservation charity that works to conserve all five rhino species by supporting conservation programmes across Africa and Asia. Kuan had been fundraising for the rhinos since he was just ten years old, and was very passionate about ending the illegal, senseless and cruel poaching of the rhino population.
In countries like South Africa, rhino are viciously killed or maimed for their horns. Kuan knew that if poaching continued, these magnificent creatures would become extinct. In fact, his mantra was always “the best place for a rhino’s horn is on its head”.
In honour of Kuan and his love for saving the rhino, his family set up a fundraising memorial page to continue the fundraising efforts started by Kuan from a very young age, and which he continued with the help of his sister Kaira. In the past two years, Joelene and her family have raised over $5,000 from generous donations in Kuan’s memory to go towards helping the rhinos.
This brings us back to the skydive that Kuan had always wanted to do, but never got the chance. Jolene and eight of Kuan’s friends got together at our Wollongong drop zone recently to take the ultimate leap in honour of Kuan, and his passion for the rhinos.
The group invited their family and friends to join them at Stuart Park to watch them land from their skydive and have a picnic afterwards, and they also managed to reach Jolene’s fundraising target of $10,000, and with donations still coming in.
The group collectively loved their skydiving experience, from the adrenaline rush of freefall to the feeling of accomplishment afterwards, and they now share a beautiful memory in honour of their beloved Kuan. Jolene had nothing but wonderful words for the team at Skydive Sydney-Wollongong, and was so happy that her instructor Charly was able to help her jump with Kuan’s soft Rhino toy as well. We’d like to say a huge thank you to the drop zone team and instructors for getting behind the cause and going out of their way to make sure that Jolene and her group had a fantastic skydiving experience!
In Kuan’s memory, we’d like to share the following statistic about rhino poaching on his behalf:
- One rhino is killed every 16 hours.
- In the last decade poachers have killed 9,914 rhinos in Africa alone.
- The world-wide Rhino population fell from 70,000 in 1970 to fewer than 10,000 in the early 1990’s. Fundraising and awareness efforts have more than doubled the population to around 27,000 in the wild by the end of 2022, but that’s still not enough.
- Three of the five rhinoceros species in the world are currently listed as critically endangered, putting them at extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Jolene also left us with one key message she wanted us to share:
“Kuan was with us for only 18 years. Rhinos have been around for 40 million years. We want to ensure they are around FOREVER, by raising funds to stop rhino poaching.”
If you would like to sponsor Jolene’s skydive for Kuan, please visit the following link to make a donation to help save the rhinos:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Kuan-Brown
Thank you to Jolene and Kuan’s loved ones for choosing Skydive Australia to jump in his memory. We are honoured to help raise awareness for the rhinos in his honour.
