Dilys Price

Until retirement Price was a senior lecturer at the Cardiff College of Education. She specialised in the art of movement and dance and had been taught by Rudolph Laban.[4] From the 1970s she had become involved in applying her knowledge to the education of children and adults with special needs. Her innovations led to a new major option course in Adaptive Physical Education for Special Needs in the Physical Education Department at her college in the 1980s. She was a member of the team that led to the opening of the Wales Sports Centre for the Disabled in the (now) Cardiff Metropolitan University in 1996.[5][6]

Price founded the Touch Trust in 1996, which became a registered charity in 2000.[3][4] The objective was movement education for people with autism, dementia and profound disabilities. She retired from any day-to-day role in the charity in 2015 but continued fundraising.[7]

Price took up parachuting in 1986 and trained in the United States. She carried out more than 1,130 solo jumps around the globe.[3] She specialised in the aesthetic maneuvers of freestyling and air acrobatics while falling.[3] In 2000 she gained a silver medal at the British Parachute National competition for freestyle.[5] She acquired the name "Daredevil Dilys". She made one jump from 28,000 ft (8,500 m) which required an oxygen supply.[8] On 13 April 2013 she carried out a parachute jump from Langar Airfield, Nottingham, UK, when she was 80 years and 315 days old which made her the oldest solo woman parachutist.[1] This record still stood at the time of her death in 2020.[1] After the 2013 jump, Price stopped doing solo jumps and sold her parachute when she was aged 86.[3] Her parachute jumps raised thousands of pounds for charity.[7] In 2017 she gave a TEDx talk in Cardiff about her parachuting.[9]

In 2018 Price acted as a model for the Helmut Lang fashion brand in its 'Women of Wales' autumn collection.[8]

Price was born 3 June 1932.[2][8] Price married, had a son and later divorced. She died in October 2020.[8]

Price was appointed an OBE in 2003 for services to people with special needs.[3] In 2017 she was singled out for special recognition for her work at the Pride of Britain Awards.[3][7] In 2018, she was included by Wales' Women's Equality Network among 50 living women who have influenced Welsh life.[10] She was made an honorary fellow at University of Wales Trinity Saint David in July 2018[6] and also Cardiff Metropolitan University.[3]