SHELTON — Hurtling from the sky like a peregrine falcon, Brian Juel felt an exquisite peace.

Then, as a parachute opened above him, he “realized a sense of remorse that the fall had ended, but at the same time relief that the descent to earth would not be at 120 mph.”

Juel, a Sequim dentist who spent the past 45 years thinking about skydiving, finally did it last Sunday. It was “unsurpassed exhilaration,” he said — and it was a way to raise nearly $2,000 for a cause near to his pounding heart.

Juel’s jump was a “Leap for Lupus,” a fund- and awareness-raiser for the University of Washington Rheumatology Department.

There, scientists are studying new treatments for lupus, a mysterious, unpredictable illness in which the body’s own defense system attacks its muscles, joints and vital organs.

Juel’s daughter Brianna, 25, was diagnosed with lupus in 2004. Since suffering one major flare, she has integrated seven medications into her daily life.

Brianna and her father learned of the Leap for Lupus earlier this year and decided it would be a fitting gift for Juel’s 60th birthday, which fell on Thursday.

Raising funds

To jump, Juel was required to raise at least $500 to support the UW’s research.

He decided to give $1,000, and invited family, friends and patients to match that; by Thursday he had collected $815.

“The important thing is that we’re just a few dollars short of our goal in matching donations,” Juel noted.

“The generosity and selflessness of this community is what makes it such a great place to live.”

The causes of lupus are unknown, and there’s no cure yet.

But a new medication, Benlysta, has proved effective in clinical trials, and its maker, Human Genome Sciences, hopes for Food and Drug Administration approval in early 2010.

Benlysta would be the first new treatment for lupus in 50 years and the only drug ever formulated specifically for the disease.

Before his leap over Shelton’s Sanderson Field on Sunday, both Juel and Brianna met Valinda Mitchell, the Leap for Lupus founder and an avid skydiver who has the disease.

Juel made his jump attached to Scott Harper, a Skydive Kapowsin staffer who’s made hundreds of leaps.

While cradled by the parachute’s canopy, the two men made gentle turns through the scattered clouds — and then some more dramatic maneuvers.

“I made one mistake on the way down,” Juel admitted, “and that was to tell Scott to go for it.

“We seemed to do a steep spiral corkscrew turn that turned my stomach in kind. I did maintain my composure all the way down to a soft landing.”

Juel added that he’s eager to go again. “This is like sushi: Once you’ve tasted it, you want more.”

Brianna, watching from the airfield, couldn’t see the men step out of the plane 13,000 feet up. But as he came into view and floated back to Earth, her father impressed her with his grace.

“I was really proud of him,” she said. “He landed on his feet.”

Donations may be sent to Sequim Family Dentistry, P.O. Box 3430, Sequim, WA 98382, or via the Leap for Lupus Foundation’s Web site, www.LeapforLupus.org.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.