Mustard Tree Macmillan Counsellor Ellie Ricketts wins award for cold water therapy for people with cancer
Ellie was inspired to offer people with cancer the opportunity to experience the benefits of cold water swimming for themselves, so she funded her own training to become a sea swimming coach, then secured a grant from Macmillan to launch ‘Into The Blue’, an innovative cold water therapy swimming course. The course caught the eyes and imaginations of Macmillan’s Award judges, and at the end of 2024 Ellie was awarded with the Innovation Excellence Award for the project.
Since its launch in June 2023, this groundbreaking project has helped hundreds of people with cancer to reconnect with their bodies and boost their mental health. “The water temperature is so arresting that when you go in, you can't do anything but deal with the cold – everything else is left behind,” explains Ellie. “What’s more, when people with cancer overcome their fears of going into the water, that courage transfers into the rest of their life.”
Ellie originally qualified as a counsellor in 2000 and was drawn to work within oncology because of family experiences with cancer. “That was why I first came to UHP - it just felt like coming home. To be part of this integrative holistic care offering for cancer patients is absolutely wonderful,” says Ellie. “I've always been massively proud to work for the NHS, and I'm enormously proud to be a Macmillan professional, so to receive this award means everything to me.” 
As a counsellor, Ellie has worked on the enhanced supportive care team for people at the palliative or end-of-life stages. “You go to another level as somebody's counsellor, because you have the absolute privilege of being party to how it really is. For me, that was a massive inspiration for Into The Blue,” Ellie explains. “Often, for a long period of time before a cancer diagnosis, we may not have much of an awareness of our body – our body can just be our body – but after a diagnosis it can become a place of distrust or a place of fear. When you live with cancer, that crushing weight of illness becomes a prism through which everything else you feel, experience or see, is diverted.”
Before each 8-week course starts, Ellie has a detailed conversation with participants to really understand their situation. “I make sure I understand anything that might make accessing the course difficult – whether that’s around how they will get there, whether they can't afford a dry robe, whether they have a stoma, or whether they’re anxious about the car park being busy. By putting some really detailed planning in place I can reassure them that they will be safe.”
Ellie takes photographs of participants throughout the session, so that they can see the effect of the therapy: “That's an absolutely joyful, wonderful part of it – witnessing participants seeing themselves as they manage this really challenging thing. People’s identities change as they become individuals who no longer feel defined by their cancer. It's just completely phenomenal watching that happen.”
Almost every pathway is clinically suitable to take part in the Into the Blue courses. “I've got people with blood cancers, urological cancers, breast cancers, gynae cancer, sarcomas, lung, skin cancers – people from their 20s to their 70s,” says Ellie.
Ellie is now working with Plymouth Marjons University on an ethnographic study to gather evidence of the cold-water swimming’s transformative impact.
“It’s an adventure and it takes courage to do it. The brilliant thing is that it works every single time. So, no matter how many times you go into cold water, it's still a challenge to go in and then you come out and you're settled and you're calmer, and you feel more solid and more grounded – or joyful or elated – or all of those things.”
What’s next for Into the Blue? “I just want to connect people with the possibility and the joy of cold water swimming and the transformation it can bring about. It's a tool that you can give people. I wish it could be prescribed; if it was that would be fantastic!”
