Meet the Scarborough women raising awareness of menopause - by emulating the Calendar Girls

Menopause Meet formed at the Hub community centre in Newby and Scalby this year, offering 10 two-hour sessions in which 12 women shared their stories about how the menopause affected them, as well as receiving expert advice.

The women soon became firm friends as they discussed issues they were experiencing – and are now creating the calendar to raise funds to support more women during the menopause.

Organiser Helen King said: “On week one these ladies walked into the room, some of them quite broken and in need of help. We threw the tissues up and down the table in the first two or three weeks. As it progressed, they formed bonds and friendships. It is a lifelong friendship group now.”

The idea for the calendar arose from a trip by Helen King to see Calendar Girls on stage. The members of Menopause Meet responded enthusiastically.

The calendar is being shot around Newby and Scalby, using settings ranging from the Hub and the chemists to the cricket and rugby clubs and allotments. It will be A3 size and each page will include a menopause fact, useful links and a large area in which women can note anything from appointments to how they are feeling.

“It is going to be very much for ladies around the country, not just locally,” Ms King said. “We hope sales will fund events like train the trainer groups, giving employees from larger companies a full day of training that they can take back to the workplace and form their own support groups.”

One of the members of the group, Louise Smith, said of the group: “This wasn’t just about medical treatments, this was about everything that you could do to try to make life a little better while going through the menopause. It aligned with how I was feeling about it, because I felt physically and emotionally unwell, and trying to cope with hot flushes, lack of sleep and everything that went along with it.”

The group was begun with a £1,000 grant from North Yorkshire County Council’s Stronger Communities team.