Army widow joins Calendar Girls-style effort to raise cash for Help For Heroes charity

A group of women - including an Army widow - have stripped off to raise money for the Help For Heroes charity.

The Calendar Girls'-style publication is the brainchild of best friends, Bethany Shaw and Amy Read.

They took just four weeks to persuade 12 women to strip, find a suitable photographer, set up locations and sort out printing, production and promotion.

Bethany, from Lydney, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, said: 'We have had so much fun putting the calendar together and it's for such a great cause

Calendar girls: The brave women who bared all to raise money for injured military personnel


'The reaction we have had has been unbelievable.'

She was happy to strip naked, cover herrself in baby oil and jump into a freezing ponds... to become Miss January.

Bethany said: 'I love water, that’s why I wanted to do a water shoot. But it was, I can only say, freezing.

Proud: Sadie Baldwin, who appears as Miss November in a new charity calendar raising funds for Help For Heroes, lost her husband in a road accident


'I went completely numb. Another five minutes I would probably have died.'

Surprisingly, there was very little arm twisting to get people involved.

'None of us had done this before,' said Amy.

'It was friends of friends and word of mouth, but most were really up for it.

'We were all new, all fresh and some of the girls were a bit cautious, but they trusted us to know it would be classily done.

'There’s a thin line between something that’s tasteful, and something that just isn’t.'

As for the months. Bethany was January and water. February was strategically placed chocolates marking Valentine’s Day.

April showers were boots and an umbrella shot in woods near Coleford. June was flowers covering things up. July, the Union Jack.

November is Army widow Sadie Baldwin posing on a lorry sporting a giant poppy.

Sadie, 22, lost husband Ricky – a serving soldier – last year. He was killed in a car crash while serving with 5th Battalion The Rifles in Germany last year, leaving her to raise Lilly-Mae, two, and one-year-old Oliver.
She said: 'I was delighted to be asked to join in with the calendar because Help for Heroes is a charity helping wounded soldiers.

'After all the army and the soldiers have done for us, it’s nice to be able to repay them in some way.'

Mrs Baldwin was asked by friends to pose for the calendar because of her military connections.

She still lives at Beechley Barracks in Chepstow, Monmouthshire,and works behind the bar in the sergeants’ mess.


In the spotlight: Vikki Baglin-May (left) and Georgina Gwilliam

She said: 'Friends have been injured in Afghanistan, so Help for Heroes is close to my heart.

'It was good fun posing for the pictures, but not something I would do again.

'This was strictly a one-off to raise money and awareness for a good cause. And it’s a good way to remember my husband. He’d have loved it.'

The £10 calendar can been ordered from helpforheroescalendar2010@hotmail.com.


Lovely shrubbery: Shani Owens (left), Kirsty Morgan (centre) and Kim Meek


source: dailymail