Local women drop everything for a good cause!

A group of young women from the north Meath and south Cavan area are taking a leaf out of Helen Mirren and Julie Walters' 2003 movie 'Calendar Girls' and are launching a 'nude calendar' this Sunday to raise funds for palliative care in the area. Dare to Bare for Palliative Care is an 18-month calendar, running from July 2010 to December 2011 and will be launched in Relaghbeg House, between Mullagh and Bailieboro', on Sunday night. Photographs for the calender involved girls, who are all local to the Meath-Cavan border area, posing in their birthday suits outdoors in local parks and forests, as well as studio shoots for the not-so-brave. A total of 24 brave women have posed for the calendar, most in individual poses, but there is a mother and daughter shot, a picture of two sisters and a photograph of two friends together. The youngest of the women is 20 while the oldest is 50. The Relaghbeg Fundraising Committee was set up by a group of people in the north Meath/south Cavan border and, every year, they try to do something new to catch attention and raise funds for a worthy cause. They have been fundraising since 2003 and a men's nude calender was launched in June 2004. "Since then, we ladies have listened to constant pleading and begging so we eventually had to give in," explained PRO, Elizabeth Daly. Proceeds from the calender sales will go to palliative care for the Meath and Cavan areas. The event is held every year in Smyth's Relaghbeg House, which is a country pub north of Mullagh on the Meath/Cavan border, which is why they choose to support charities in both counties. Last year, they held a world record attempt in which they spray-tanned 60 men in 60 minutes and raised €8,000. The previous year, they held a fundraising walk from Cork City to Bailieboro', raising €54,180 for Teenline Ireland. In 2007, they held a ladies' head shave which raised €25,000 for the Hospice Movement in Meath and Cavan and, in 2007, their couch push raised €8,000 for the burns unit in St James's Hospital, Dublin, while a triathlon in 2006 raised €8,000 for the Bailieboro Resource Centre. The men's nude calendar, which was published in 2004, raised €12,000 for Special Olympics. Their first fundraiser in 2003 was a bed push, which raised €6,000 for multiple sclerosis.