Cheeky tribute to WI aids hospice

Calendar Girls hand over their money

A team of cheeky charity fund-raisers turned into Saddleworth’s very own version of the famous Calendar Girls to boost funds.

The women posed discreetly behind a poster advertising the glittering event for Dr Kershaw’s Hospice at the White Hart, Lydgate.

Petite Gill Bussey thought up the stunt and encouraged her co-organiser, Jill Moore, and senior nursing sister Kay Tomlinson at Dr Kershaw’s, to join in the fun.

Two of the original Calendar Girls who appeared in the famous Alternative WI Calendar spoke at the event.

Beryl Bamforth and Angela Baker told the audience of more than 300 about their fund-raising experiences during the harrowing time Mrs Baker’s husband, John, was suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

He later died, but the determined women, joined by a group of friends from Rylstones in the Yorkshire Dales, produced their famous calendar in 1999 and have since raised more than £1 million for Leukaemia Research.

The calendar, showing them in saucy poses, gained nationwide publicity and was later made into a TV documentary, film and play.

Their appearance in Lydgate raised around £4,000 for Dr Kershaw’s.

Mrs Bussey said: “The real-life Calendar Girls were truly inspirational. They made us all cry and laugh at their fund-raising antics. But I thought it would be fun to emulate their success — so Jill and Kay joined in the fun.

“We all went topless behind the Kershaw’s poster —just like the women did in the WI Calendar. Of course, it was all done in the best possible taste.”