WHEN the original Calendar Girls threw off their Women’s Institute image of jam and Jerusalem along with their clothes, they created a new fundraising trend.
Now, a new North East charity is seeking five female entrepreneurs to pose for its own “2010 Peeled & Revealed” calendar.
The calendar will feature 11 semi-clad business owners shot at famous North East landmarks such as Penshaw Monument and Newcastle Quayside.
It will raise money for charity 3Cs (Challenge Cervical Cancer) which needs around £85,000 to buy the UK’s first mobile cervical cancer screening unit. They’re also planning a masquerade ball in October.
3Cs co-founder Karen Morris of Washington, said: “We’re looking for women of any age, any shape and any size across the North East from Middlesbrough to the Scottish Borders. They just need to own their own business.
“We’ll be dressed fairly provocatively but tastefully so people will think – is she nude or is she not?”
Karen, who owns Refine Medispa and Tiger Lily boutique in Whitburn, has recently launched a new photographic studio called Le Poseur. Her photographers will be offering their services free.
Says Karen: “Each women who takes part will need to raise a minimum of £1,000 in sponsorship, with the logos of companies that pledge their support appearing on their month. We hope to print 25,000 calendars.”
September will be a special month featuring all the women together at The Angel of the North.
Says Karen: “It will be dedicated to all the women in the UK who have lost their lives to cervical cancer, including Claire Walker-Everett from Washington who died from cervical cancer in September last year at the age of 23. Her dad used to call her his Angel of the North.”
Karen got the idea for 3Cs 15 months ago after a night out in Newcastle with friend Lesley Milbourne, who owns business consultancy LMC Associates in Jarrow. The pair discovered both been affected in the past with abnormal smear test results picking up pre-cancerous cells in the cervix. Both were successfully treated with cryotherapy where the affected cells are frozen off.
