Daksh takes a leap of faith to complete the Industry Leader Challenge

5:34 pm, July 22, 2016

HE DID IT! Marshall Motor Holdings chief executive Daksh Gupta today completed a skydive to raise money for the automotive charity BEN – in the first event held as part of the ‘Industry Leader Challenge’.

Gupta is the first person to participate in the challenge in which, each year, a key figure from the UK automotive industry will take on a personal fund-raising mission to help raise money for the organisation.

@MarshallMotorGp @dakshbenjump “It was amazing but I’m definitely never doing it again!”. Once is enough for £100k+ pic.twitter.com/mfwoFXryfJ

— BEN Events (@BENEventsTeam) July 22, 2016

As we reported earlier this week, once completed, he or she will pass the ‘baton’ on to a new leader whose aim will be to raise more money than the previous challenger.

The inspiration for the event came from former Marshall director Sarah Sillars, who took on her own personal challenge for BEN, successfully climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2010 and raising an incredible £38,000. Gupta’s fund-raising total currently stands at an incredible £142,000 with hopes that it will pass the £150,000 mark.

What an amazing day. @MarshallMotorGp Daksh has set the bar high as first to take @BENMotorCharity Industry Leaders Challenge @dakshbenjump

— BEN Events (@BENEventsTeam) July 22, 2016

Speaking after the jump, which took place at the Hinton Skydive Centre in Brackley, Northants., Gupta said: ‘I must admit the worst thing is going up. I was having second thoughts up there but it was amazing.

‘We actually jumped from 13,000 feet, not 10,000. On the way up I was thinking “crikey this is really high” and that’s when your stomach goes.