Two Bradford supermarket workers have been plunged into shark infested waters to raise money for charity.

Melanie Cropper, who works for Tesco in Cleckheaton, and Toby Farnell, who works for the chain’s Brighouse branch, swam with sharks the size of buses hundreds of miles from civilisation to support Marie Curie Cancer Care, Tesco’s chosen charity for 2008.

The pair, who live in Castlerigg Green, Woodside, came face to face with great white sharks in Guadeloupe and then flew to the Galapagos Islands to swim with hammerheads and whale sharks, the largest living species of fish.

Melanie, 41, said: “We were 160 miles off the Californian coast and we were the only people for miles around.

“The sharks came straight past the cage – it was an amazing adventure which we will remember for a long time.”

Melanie said she always supports cancer charities when she can because she lost her father to the disease four years ago.

She performed a wing-walk in 2004 to raise money for Bradford’s Marie Curie Centre.

She said: “The wing walk was arranged when my dad was diagnosed but he passed away before I did it.

“This year we are supporting Marie Curie again and we decided to do a cage dive. Cancer affects everybody.”

The shark dive alone raised £1,000.

Melanie said Tesco Cleckheaton had raised £5,500 and Tesco Brighouse had raised £4,500. When the final amounts raised are collated Tesco will add 20 per cent to the total.

Toby, 42, said: “We all get touched by cancer – my dad had part of his lung removed because of it. We do as many events as we can.”

He said the couple met a few years ago at the supermarket and took up diving together.

He said: “We weren’t scared of the sharks because they eat plankton. It was an amazing experience.”