A HALESOWEN mum has recruited friends and family to pose for a ‘tastefully topless’ charity calendar after her auntie was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Maxine Green, of the Lodgefield Estate, was inspired to help the charity Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer when her aunt Anne Ely, was diagnosed with the disease after a routine mammogram.

As well as several friends, she managed to persuade her sister, Tish Parker Hughes and their mum Linda to join her in posing for the ‘Calendar Girls’ style calendar.

Backed by local businesses which sponsored a page in the calendar for £50 a time, the eleven ladies have now posed for their photos and are ready to unleash their calendar.

Maxine, aged 44, who is married and has two sons, aged 14 and 12 at Windsor High, said she hopes to raise £2k for the charity.

She said: "It was great fun doing the calendar. My mum was the first to strip off and by the end of it we were all walking around half naked.

"My sons aren't very impressed, but it's for a brilliant cause.

"My Auntie Anne has been quite poorly - but we're hoping she will be able to pose for one of the months after her last chemo session this week."

Each month has a theme including skiing, St Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day.

Anne, aged 68, of Billesley, was diagnosed in May when she went for a mammogram - the cancer had spread to a lymph node so she had her lymph nodes on her right side removed and chemotherapy.

She developed an infection and was quite poorly for a time, but Maxine, who works for a financial advisors in Worcester, said she is due her last chemo session this Friday.

She will then have five weeks of radiotherapy.

Maxine has been sponsored by firms including Acrylic Solutions, Hayseech Road, Halesowen; Sovereign Office Equipment, Mucklow Hill and Balti Towers, Long Lane, Halesowen.

Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer was set up in 2000 by three friends. Sadly, two of the founding ladies – Sue Macmaster and Carol Knaggs – lost their own battles with breast cancer.

Their friend Veronica Kumeta still fronts the charity which has now donated over £1 million to the Cancer Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, helping fund new medical equipment and create a ‘centre of excellence’.

The calendars cost £5 plus postage and will be available in December.

To buy one or donate to the cause e mail or maxine.green75@gmail.com