Calendar Girls bear up for charity walk
Joanne Ginley THEY decorated their bras with their trademark sunflowers and walked the hills of the Yorkshire Dales to be ready for their latest challenge.
Four members of the Yorkshire Calendar Girls, together with friends and family, are in training for London's Playtex Moonwalk, an event in which thousands of women walk 26.2 miles through the night, all wearing elaborately decorated bras.
So far the exploits of the Rylstone and District Women's Institute, whose tastefully posed nude calendar six years ago took the world by storm and inspired a hit movie starring Julie Walters and Helen Mirren, have raised more than 1m for Leukaemia Research. This time they will be helping breast cancer sufferers.
Ros Fawcett, 56, the original Miss November, is taking part in the challenge together with her sister, 54-year-old Val Cornish, of Jersey, who was diagnosed with breast cancer more than a decade ago.
The Calendar Girl says her sister is now in good health but added: "My sister's illness made me want to do this. Any of us might get breast cancer one day and it's brilliant to think that you might be able to help other people."
Three other Calendar Girls are also taking part: Chris Clancy, 53, Trisha Stewart, 57, and Angela Baker, 60. Joining them will be Mrs Stewart's sister Maggie Chester, 60; Chris Clancy's niece Gaby Wright, 34, and Anne-Marie Simpson, 38, a friend of the group, who has been put in charge of training.
None of them has ever attempted a marathon before and they have been training since January. On Saturday they set off from Burnsall, near Skipton, for a 20-mile walk as part of their preparations.
The Playtex Moonwalk is in its ninth year and takes place in London on May 20. It starts at 11pm and will raise money for Walk the Walk, a charity that supports breast cancer causes in Britain.
The Calendar Girls, including the four taking part in the Moonwalk, recently launched a 2007 Calendar, following the success of the first launched after the death of Angela Baker's first husband John, from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1998.
Anyone interested in sponsoring them on the Moonwalk should contact Jemma Holiday at KTB PR on 0207 924 7214.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
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