The mum of a schoolboy who was murdered at a flat in Wishaw, while trying to act as a peacekeeper, put aside her fear of heights to complete a skydive in her son’s memory.
Sean Ford was just 15 years old when he was killed in March 2020. He died after being stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors at a house in Craigneuk.
His mum, Kellyann Berry, who has a heights phobia, had planned to do a skydive on Sean’s 18th birthday, along with her partner Eddie and 19-year-old son Aidan, to raise money for Steel Warriors – a charity which melts down knives taken off the streets and recycles the steel into outdoor community gyms.
The dive was meant to take place near Perth but after it was postponed twice they travelled south last Sunday to Sky-High skydiving in Durham, where Kellyann and Aidan finally took to the skies before jumping from the aircraft thousands of feet up.
“It was absolutely brilliant, I’ve been watching the video and I keep laughing at myself,” Kellyann said. “I was so happy and I kept wondering why I wasn’t scared. I shouted 'Happy 18th Sean Ford' when I jumped out, you can hear it on the video.
“This time we were waiting on a 15-minute gap in the clouds so we could go. I wanted to go first but Aidan went first.
“He looked like a sandbag falling out the plane and I just thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s away’.
"When I jumped out I shouted 'Happy Birthday Sean Ford'.
“When I went I could see Aidan in the clouds. It was really good that we got to see each other up there. It was absolutely amazing, it really was.
“I am petrified at heights, so I really don’t know how I managed to do that, but I wasn’t scared when I was up in the plane. I was smiling and just really happy.
“It’s not cured my fear of heights but it was just really different. The wind was hitting me so hard it was difficult to smile but it felt warm and calm, it was weird. As soon as I jumped out, I felt totally calm.
“We’ve raised £880 now and there’s still a couple of people who are going to donate.”
Kellyann’s joy at completing the jump has been tempered by news that her son’s murderer Connor McMath is now using the same surname as her – Berry.
She added: “The day before the skydive, a girl who was one of Sean’s pals is in a group chat and she told me he has changed his name to Berry. It made me feel sick and I was really annoyed.
"She told me more than one person, including a boy who’d been in Polmont, has said that. It’s his mum’s name as well because when Sean was killed the police and CID asked me if his mum was related to me, but it just so happens we have the same surname.”
A jail insider told Lanarkshire Live: “There is nothing in law in Scotland to prevent anyone changing their name, in fact Robert Mone has adopted the name Jim Smith, and there’s nothing to stop anyone using whatever name they choose.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Prison Service said they were unable comment on the personal details of individual prisoners.
You can donate to Kellyann’s skydive at: gofundme.com/f/steel-warriors-knife-crime
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