Naked ambition scoops local award for calendar ladies

A GROUP of Waterford women who bared almost everything in a tasteful calendar which raised €40,000 for cancer charities has been honoured with a coveted local award.

The Hospice Movement in Waterford and the South Eastern Cancer Foundation each benefited to the tune of €20,000. The ‘Renaissance Ladies’ behind the fundraiser have been honoured with the Tower Hotel Waterford Excellence Award for March.

Driving the fundraiser were 11 local women aged up to 60 who were inspired to “bare almost all” by a group in North Yorkshire who were later the subject of the Calendar Girls film.

The team has paid tribute to photographers Suzanne Butler-Walsh and Ann Power for the tasteful black-and-white images used in the calendar.

The Renaissance Ladies were Nichola Beresford, Lynda Gough, Celia O’Neill, Laura Farrell, Eileen Pender, Ger Whealton, Deirdre Jacques, Deirdre Roche, Barbara Whelan, Natalie de Braam and Linda Mullaly.

Spokeswoman Deirdre Jacques said that Waterford hasn’t heard the last from them by a long shot and they would continue to help worthy Waterford causes.

Presenting the award to the group, hotel manager Alicia Maguire said: “This team really captured the imagination of the Waterford public with this innovative fundraising effort and they showed great personal spark in being willing to go through the photo shoots needed to create such a lovely calendar.

“The causes they selected to benefit from the initiative are close to the hearts of all Waterford people and do tremendous work with and for cancer patients.

“There is a particular focus on the part of both Waterford Hospice and the South Eastern Cancer Foundation in improving the quality of life of those battling cancer and this is tremendously valuable work that deserves every possible support,” she continued.

“With 22,000 new cases of cancer reported in Ireland each year, there can hardly be a family in Waterford that has not been struck by cancer at some point and I know that almost all of the Renaissance Ladies have close personal experience of cancer.

“Indeed, many of us have lost friends and relatives to cancer, with one out of every eight deaths worldwide now cancer-related.

“What the Hospice Movement and Cancer Foundation help ensure is that cancer patients are not stripped of their dignity and that they and their families are afforded every available help at a most traumatic time.”