CAFE owner Noreen Lyall had no choice but to grin and bare it when she decided to organise a naughty naked calendar for charity.
She was pressured into leading from the front after seeking volunteers to bare all and pose in their birthday suits for the camera.
Noreen – who runs Nor’s Cafe and Takeaway in Morpeth with her assistant Debra Gibson – decided to produce the 2013 calendar to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
She and Debra asked other business owners and workers on the Coopies Lane Industrial Estate in the Northumberland town to strip off and be photographed behind strategically-placed items to hide their blushes.
And the message that came back was “We’ll do it if you will.”
So Noreen and Debra, who both live in Choppington, Northumberland, decided to bite the bullet and get naked themselves for one of the 12 pages.
Other volunteers – both male and female – joined them to be photographed in all their glory at various business premises on the estate. Two hundred copies of the colour calendar are now on sale for £6, in the hope of raising about £1,250 for the cancer charity.
Noreen said: “Both Debra and I have lost family members to cancer, and it has also affected a lot of our customers. We wanted to do something for Marie Curie Cancer Care because they don’t always get as big a mention as some other charities, but cover everything and do great work.
“It all started off as a bit of fun and a laugh with the lads who come into the cafe, but then a couple of them came back and asked if we were really going to do a naked calendar.
“Debra and I were quickly told that we couldn’t expect other people to do something the two of us wouldn’t do, so there was no choice but for us to take part too.
“John Phillips, an amateur photographer who works on the industrial estate, agreed to do the pictures and the calendar was produced by a local printer. We got sponsorship from local businesses in return for putting their details on the calendar, so we did it with not a lot of outlay.
“Everyone who posed naked for the photos either works on the Coopies Lane Industrial Estate or is a customer at the cafe. There are more men than women on it, but of the 200 that were produced we only have 30 to 35 left. Most of the people who’ve seen it think it’s really good and quite funny.”
Kathleen Hancock and her husband David, who run stove supplier and installer DKCS Ltd on the estate, were among those who stripped off.
Kathleen said: “We posed behind one of our stoves and sponsored a page of the calendar. We were happy to join in and support such a good cause.”
