When school friends Eloise Chisholm and Aimee Lindsay spent more than four hours cleaning stables they should have come out reeking of muck… but instead emerged smelling of roses after raising more than £1,000 for charity.

The Grittleton House pupils decided to do something positive when they heard of their teacher’s sadness after her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Vanessa Campillo, of the school’s languages department, had already decided to raise as much money for Great Western Hospital’s NHS Foundation Charitable Fund, known as the Brighter Futures Appeal.

Her fundraising efforts included taking part in the Swindon hospital’s recent sponsored Reindeer Run. Much to Miss Campillo’s delight, pupils of all ages plotted to raise further money by selling doughnuts and hot chocolate during their break and at lunchtimes, and collecting money during the school’s annual cake making competition.

However, two Year 8 girls from Miss Campillo’s tutor group, Eloise, 13, and Aimee, 12, decided to roll up their sleeves and really get stuck in by taking part in a sponsored ‘muck out’.

They got cracking on a freezing winter’s morning at the Rein and Shine Riding School, at Braydon, near Minety.

Fuelled with cups of hot chocolate from the stables’ owners, the girls mucked out 14 stables, raising £1,014.

An exhausted Aimee said: “It was really good fun, but very tiring.”

Eloise added: “I am very happy that we have done this to help Miss Campillo, but I was so tired afterwards.”