GREAT Western Hospital’s breast cancer team swapped their scalpels for buckets of icy water as they took part in the Ice Bucket Challenge.

For the past month, challengers have nominated their friends, family members and colleagues to film themselves being showered with icy water to raise awareness and money for charity within 24 hours of being nominated.

They are then expected to make a donation, and then nominate somebody else. If they do not complete the challenge, they are expected to make a much larger donation to charity of £100 or more.

Four members of the team including Nathan Coombs, Marcus Galea, Anoushka Chowdri and Simon Hawkins went under the bucket in a bid to raise awareness of the hospital’s breast cancer radiotherapy appeal.

Nathan Coombs, consultant breast surgeon at the GWH, said: “Last week my six-year-old nephew Kenny Binmore did the challenge and then he nominated me, so I had to do it and I thought I’d do it for our breast cancer appeal.

“It’s really not what you expect, it really does take your breath away, it is that cold.”

The new intra-operative radiotherapy could change the lives of 150 Swindon women each year but, in order to keep the new machine on the premises, the GWH needs to raise a total of £75,000 in order to pay for the lease.

The treatment, which will only take about 25 minutes to apply, works by zapping the areas affected by breast cancer with radiotherapy while the patient is still in the operating room, rather than the patient needing to travel to Oxford or Bath to receive traditional radiotherapy.

Nathan said: “I think doing an Ice Bucket Challenge really does help to raise awareness of what we are trying to do and for charities generally.

“It really has been capturing people’s imaginations and with Facebook it’s really helped to spread awareness.”