Breast cancer charity bans topless model from fundraising on its behalf

TOPLESS model Claire Tully has been told by a leading breast cancer organisation it does not want her doing charity gigs on its behalf.

The ‘page three’ personality was instructed by the Marie Keating Foundation not to raise money on its behalf when she takes part in a television charity event next month.

“I just think it would be wrong for Claire to do it, raising money for our organisation, in the work that we do. I am simply saying there would be a sensitivity in the fit. We could be very mercenary and say we will take any money from anybody who will raise it for us, but there has to be a stand taken around certain issues,” said Lillian McGovern, chief executive of the foundation.

Ms Tully is due to take part in Fáilte Towers, which will open its doors to an unsuspecting public on August 2, live on RTÉ One.

Presented by Aidan Power and Baz Ashmawy, Fáilte Towers will feature 12 celebrities battling the heat of the kitchen, the steam of the laundry and the toil of the toilets as they are left to their own devices to run a fully functioning hotel — all in the name of charity.

“The purpose of the show is to raise money for the charity of your choice and I wanted to do it for a breast cancer charity because my mother had breast cancer and my grandmother had it. It’s something that is very close to my heart,” Ms Tully said on Newstalk 106-108fm yesterday.

Ms Tully is guaranteed to raise a minimum of €5,000 for the charity of her choice, which will now be the National Breast Cancer Research Institute Centre in Galway.

In a recent interview, defending those who disrobe for the tabloid press, she said: “I think it is people’s attitudes that are wrong, and I think this is directly from the influence of the Church and religion. People are brought up with the idea that our bodies are disgusting and that we should be humiliated by them. And I think that is why people do not like it when a woman takes her breasts out. And I think it is the people who have a problem like that who are discriminating against women and not the people who put girls on page three. Because those girls are not exploited. They get paid well.”