A Trinity College student has been doing the Ice Bucket Challenge every day this month to raise funds for vital dental aid in Nepal.
Gwen Sizun is a fourth year student and she hopes to volunteer in rural communities this summer to help the less fortunate who are in desperate need of basic dental care.
To help raise awareness, Gwen has been asking strangers to dump an ice bucket of water on her head throughout the month of April.
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She told Dublin Live: “I was getting stressed about how I’d fundraise and what I’d do. I was going to swim in the Irish Sea every day, but it seems a lot of people are doing that.
“I wanted to do something different and provide people with something to look forward to everyday.
“My friend Siofra joked that I should do the Ice Bucket Challenge everyday but I thought it’d work.
“People can be apprehensive about throwing ice on me. One man asked if he’d get arrested for it, people haven’t a clue what’s going on and it’s really funny to see their reaction.
“I buy a bag of ice and a bottle of water, mix it in a bucket and take it on a Luas into town everyday.
“It gets easier, the coldest part is not wearing a jumper because I'll get drenched if it soaks up the water, so the coldest part is being outdoors without one.
“I’m in college and work in town, so I bring my clothes in with me. I usually dry my hair in the hand dryer at work.”
Gwen needs to raise €3,000 to go abroad so to put the limelight on her GoFundMe, she has been sharing TikToks of the Ice Bucket Challenge everyday.
She believes that being able to use her skill set to provide treatment in a country that doesn’t have access to it is an “amazing opportunity”.
She said: “We’re going to a rural area of Nepal, it’s a very mountainous country so a lot of communities don’t have access to hospitals or dental care.
“We’re going there for two weeks to provide oral hygiene instructions, giving them toothbrushes, toothpaste, doing fillings for them and extractions.
“A lot of them wouldn’t know how to brush their teeth and that can prevent so much disease, even fillings don’t get done over there because extractions are cheaper, so they’ll just get that done.
“To be able to provide them with basic treatment is really necessary. We’ll be operating with supervision from dentists. I’m really excited to go, I’m in dentistry for a reason.”
You can donate to Gwen's GoFundMe here.
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