STOURBRIDGE Theatre Company is hoping its forthcoming production of Calendar Girls will raise £10,000 for research into blood cancers.

The company is believed to be the only one in the country to have pledged to donate its entire profits from the staging of the show to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

The charity that has become synonymous with the original, real-life Calendar Girls – a group of WI friends from Yorkshire who revealed all for a nude fundraising calendar in 1999.

Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research regional manager Philippa Jones said: “It is fantastic to see the fundraising legacy of the Calendar Girls live on through the work of amateur theatre companies such as Stourbridge Theatre Company.”

She thanked the company for its pledge, adding: “We hope to raise in excess of £10,000 to continue our research which focuses on finding causes, improving diagnosis and treatments, and running ground-breaking clinical trials for all blood cancer patients.”

Stourbridge Theatre Company chairman Tim French said: “We felt that it was only right that the profits should be given to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research to help in some small way with their continuing research into this dreadful disease.

“We are pleased with the support we are receiving. Tickets are still available but they are selling fast.”

The play is based on the poignant true life story of a group of friends from Yorkshire’s Rylstone and District WI who raised millions of pounds for the charity through the success of their nude calendar – which attracted national press attention and became the inspiration for a 2003 blockbuster film starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

The show, which will be one of the first amateur productions of Calendar Girls in the region, will run at Stourbridge Town Hall from Thursday November 22 to Saturday November 24 from 7.30pm each night. There will also be a 2.30pm matinee show on Saturday.

Society spokeswoman Barbara French said the revealing scenes in the production will be “very, very tastefully done”.

“The cast will all be covered up by cake and things related to the WI,” she added.

For ticket availability visit website stourbridgetheatrecompany.org.uk, call Dudley Council Plus on 01384 812812 or call into The French Deli, 1 Coventry Street, Stourbridge.