Woman, 70, skydives after heart transplant

VANDALIA, Ill., May 25 (UPI) -- A 70-year-old Missouri woman who received a heart transplant in 2001 said she lived a lifelong dream by skydiving in Vandalia, Ill.

Judy Kaufman of Chesterfield said she jumped out of a plane at 11,000 feet Sunday at the Archway Skydiving Center with her husband, two sons and grandsons looking on from the ground, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday.

"It was the most exhilarating thing I've ever done," Kaufman said after her tandem jump.

Kaufman, who lived with heart disease for 10 years before receiving her new heart in 2001, said she is not finished skydiving and hopes to jump with her teenage grandsons as soon as they are old enough.

"People have to know that transplants give people a second chance to live," she said. "I'm living for my donor. I feel it's my obligation to do it for her and her family."