OAPs in Canterbury arrange a 'Calendar Girls'-style photoshoot to raise cash for a Kilimanjaro climb
Published: 00:00, 09 June 2015
Outrageous OAPs have caused a stir online by ditching their clothes in a series of racy Calendar Girls-style photoshoots.
The three pensioners are proudly baring all for the camera in support of a thrill-seeking gran from Canterbury who is scaling Africa’s highest mountain.
Photos show them posing with nothing but whisky bottles, hats and, in one instance, a wheelie bin protecting their modesty.
Retired solicitor Sheila Miller, 67, is teaming up with her daughter and grandson for a charity assault on the 5,885 metre summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
They plan to raise at least a pound for every metre of altitude reached.
Mrs Miller told the Gazette: “It’s a bit of fun to try to raise awareness of the climb. We’re already over £3,000 and at this rate should exceed our target.”
Mrs Miller, a keen volunteer at city-based homelessness charity Catching Lives, says her pal Jean Wilson, 69, came up with the idea.
Inspired by hit film Calendar Girls, starring Oscar-winning actress Helen Miren, Mrs Wilson suggested the friends shed their clothes to promote the cause.
Writing on a weblog set up to chart the run-up to the climb, Mrs Wilson says she had the brainwave after some red wine.
To start the ball rolling, Mrs Wilson stripped off at her home and posed for the camera with some whisky bottles.
Mrs Miller, of Oxford Road, posed in her backgarden, standing in a wheelie bin.
But she says on the blog that her grandsons were sceptical about the stunt.
“It was only after some discussion that we realised the boys thought I intended to pose in a bin in the front garden.”
Another pal, Gerda Besteman, was more enthusiastic, however.
She rose to the challenge at her home in Nijmegen, Holland, posing for the lens with nothing but some strategically-placed hats.
Mrs Miller joins daughter Jae Hopkins, 42 and grandson Oscar, 12 for the Kilimanjaro challenge in August.
It was Oscar who hit on the idea, after learning that tour operator Exodus will soon lower its minimum age limit on Kilimanjaro adventure packages to 13.
Oscar, who will have turned 13 by the time of the climb in August, persuaded his mum to organise the climb, who in turn urged her mum to get involved.
Mrs Miller, previously a partner at former city centre legal practice Harman & Harman, says she is in gentle training for the climb.
“I’ve already lost a stone-and-a-half,” she says.
“I walk 10 miles twice a week. I’m not complacent though, as everybody knows it’s about altitude sickness.”
The aim of the climb is to raise funds for charity and the family intends to donate half of the proceeds to Catching Lives, which is our charity of the year.
The other half will be split between various Exodus projects around the world, including a Tanzania Porters School that teaches useful skills to both male and female porters.
To find out more, and to follow the family’s progress, visit www.3gkiliclimb.com
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Chris Pragnell