BARING ALL RAISES £7K

Survivor Wendy ropes in holiday pals to raise thousands for cancer patients

BREAST cancer survivor Wendy Wild teamed up with a long-term pal to strip off for a charity calendar.

Wendy and Rachel Anchors enlisted the help of staff and holidaymakers at the caravan park where they both regularly stay for the fundraiser.

Now their calendar – Caravan Girls – has helped to raise £7,000 for Breast Cancer Care.

The duo came up with the idea during the summer while both were at Tree Tops Caravan Park in North Wales.

Wendy was diagnosed with the disease in December 2009.

The 49-year-old, of Cheddleton, said: “I was running up the stairs and I felt the lump. I then saw it and I knew straight away that it was breast cancer.”

The mum-of-one underwent an operation along with a course of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and taking the drug, Herceptin.

Wendy, whose 74-year-old mother, Stella, also successfully overcame breast cancer 19 years ago, said: “I had a lot of support while I was having the treatment.

“When we thought about doing the calendar we weren’t sure if anyone else would want to take part but they did. I said it’d be good to raise £500, so to raise as much as we did is great.”

Rachel, of Alsager, said: “It was a warm night and we were sat outside enjoying a few drinks and we both had towels over us and our husbands commented how we looked like we were going to be in a calendar photo. That just gave us the idea.”

Their idea was shared with the site’s owner and an appeal was put out for willing models to strip off for the tasteful calendar.

Eleven volunteers posed for the calendar – which sold for £6.50 per copy – bringing in thousands of pounds when combined with donations. Mother-of-two Rachel, aged 47, said: “The owner of the site, Andrew Walker, is a photographer and so he did all the pictures for us. Caravan firms also donated money and local businesses got involved too.”

Rachel’s dad, Roger Palfrey, died of pancreatic cancer in July 2017, aged 74. The business co-ordinator added: “With Wendy being a breast cancer survivor and my dad having cancer, we just wanted to do something to help.

“We had 600 calendars done and we only have about 30 left. Posing for the photographs was nerve-wracking but we all had such a laugh.

“Some of the ladies taking part had also suffered from breast cancer.”

To make a donation visit justgiving. com/fundraising/caravan-girls Wendy Wild, left, and Rachel Anchors, inset. Above, more images from their Caravan Girls calendar.