BILL Lennon spent his 92nd birthday flying high - literally.
The Gosford man - a married father of four, grandfather to 14 and great grandfather to 17 - made his fourth jump on Friday, with Skydive Australia at Lake Macquarie Airport.
"It was great - I feel exhilarated," Mr Lennon said.
"I get a rush, it's getting better and better every time."
Mr Lennon was joined by his friend, University of Newcastle biomedical researcher and lecturer Dr Michael Bourke.
They jumped to raise awareness of the cardiovascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), which Dr Bourke has been researching to find a medical treatment.
Mr Lennon received his AAA diagnosis seven years ago.
Dr Bourke said AAA was known as the silent killer, because it usually does not cause any symptoms except during rupture.
If a person has a rupture outside of hospital, he said, they have only 20 per cent chance of surviving.
He said smoking, high blood pressure, obesity and being a male and/or over 65 increased risk.
"In Australia, we've got the highest prevalence of AAA in the western world and we've also got the highest rate of mortality from ruptured aortic aneurysms in the world and yet we don't have screening programs," he said.
Most aneurysms are found incidentally.
Dr Bourke said surgery is only warranted when an aneurysm gets to a certain size and comes with a 20 per cent chance of "serious complication" and a one to seven per cent mortality rate.
Dr Bourke said research in collaboration with James Cook University (JCU) had shown that diabetics, despite suffering a range of cardiovascular diseases, had a 36 per cent lower prevalence of AAA across the world.
He said this could possibly be because they take the medication Metformin.
He said UON with JCU and the George Institute for Global Health had received a $4.9 million National Health and Medical Research Council grant to hold the world's largest clinical trial into AAA, which will investigate the effect of Metformin on AAA.
Mr Lennon said he hoped to be involved, to help others.
His AAA was found following abdominal pain caused by gallstones. It is being monitored.
Dr Bourke said early detection could help people address risk factors. He'd also like to see a nationwide register of AAA patients.
For faster access to the latest Newcastle news download our NEWCASTLE HERALD APP and sign up for breaking news, sport and what's on sent directly to your email.
