We are proud to have their project endorsed by the original Calendar Girl herself, Tricia Stewart!

Tricia, now 77, famously had the idea for the Alternative WI Calendar, in 2000, going on to sell more than 300,000 calendars and raising £6.5m.

As ‘Miss October,’ she was one of 11 plucky Yorkshire ladies, aged between 45 and 65, to pose for the Rylestone & District WI naked calendar, the first of its kind, which inspired a hit movie, West End stage play and musical.

The aim had been to raise £5,000 and to have a calendar dedicated to the late memory of her friend Angela Baker’s late husband John. The effect of the calendar was expected to last three weeks, but 27 years on it has raised a whopping £6.5 million for the then-named Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, now Blood Cancer UK.

In September 2003, the blockbusting film ‘Calendar Girls, ' based on the story of the Alternative WI Calendar, was premiered at the Odeon, Leicester Square, with Tricia’s character played by Dame Helen Mirren.

The following year the book “The Calendar Girl’s Story” was published and, has since been reprinted and translated into many languages, including Japanese. The girls also posed for further calendars in 2004, 2005 and 2007, as well as a recipe calendar in 2008 and a ten-year anniversary edition in 2010.

The stage musical version, ‘The Girls,’ written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has throughout the world including Australia, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Israel, Brazil and Greece, as well as enjoying two UK national tours and a stint in London’s West End. Post-show bucket collections have added thousands more to the charity funds.

Tricia Stewart was born in Sunderland in the North East of England. She trained as a diagnostic radiographer, moving to Skipton in Yorkshire in February 1973, with her husband Ian, who worked for Ilford in the x-ray division. Tricia worked at Airedale General Hospital, leaving in 1976 to have daughter Lizzi. Her son, Micky, was born in 1978.

After living in Skipton for 10 years, they moved into a small village of Cracoe in the Yorkshire Dales. Tricia still lives in the Yorkshire Dales and, as well as undertaking regular speaking engagements about her Calendar Girls experience, runs Body Control Pilates classes.

On her arrival there, a neighbour, Angela Baker invited her to join the WI, telling her that the locals would think she was being funny if she didn’t join.

So Tricia joined Rylstone & District WI in 1985 and became great friends with Angela. The rest, as they say, is history!

In a recent interview with Amanda Chalmers, we learned a bit more. . .

What inspired you to do your calendar?

“It was a joke in the beginning because every year WI produced a traditional calendar which was usually photos of hills and letterboxes and sheep and this particular year our president asked us if we had any photographs to submit. I just turned to my friend AngBlog which can link to ela Baker and said, we should do an alternative WI calendar featuring the crafts of WI but in the nude! And she laughed. It stayed as joke for a couple of years until her husband John was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and we thought the time was right to do it. It was totally against the image of the WI which is why I thought it was so funny!” What was your experience like shooting the calendar?

“On shoot day we all met up under the cover of darkness wearing dressing gowns and slippers and with carrier bags and the odd bottle of wine - and Terry Logan (the husband of Miss July!) photographed eight of us that night on his 20-odd-year-old camera. We had one set of pearls which we were putting on each girl in turn for their photo. It didn’t actually hit home the scale of what we were doing until we saw how amazing the photographs turned out, that was a magic moment.

Did you ever imagine how big the calendar would become?

“The aim had been to raise £5,000 but we’d thought we’d struggle to sell a thousand. we had to have three thousand as a minimum print run. We thought we'd definitely never sell all of those. But it kept selling and we kept making money. The effect of the calendar was expected to last three weeks, but 27 years on it has raised a whopping £6.5 million for the then-named Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, now Blood Cancer UK. The stage musical version, ‘The Girls,’ written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has toured throughout the world and post-show bucket collections have added thousands more to the charity funds. Did you meet the cast before they made the movie?

“We just couldn't believe it when, in 1999, we were approached by Disney about making the film, but we were made aware we had to let them use dramatic licence on the story, this wasn't going to be a documentary. Angela had rights on the script and happily, before we all signed up, we were assured it was being filmed mainly in the Dales and with mainly English actors. One day we received a phone call from Julie Walters to say she'd like to come to lunch and meet us and, over time, we met them all. “Helen Mirren turned up with sunflowers for Angela – and a cheque for £5k for the charity! We even went to Cannes Film Festival with them which was a very special memory, as was performing at The Royal Variety Performance. They are all fantastic actresses and it felt incredible to be a part of it.

“Afterwards we did send calendars out to famous people in the hope that they would send us a cheque and help promote it. I recall Alan Bennett sent us £200 and a postcard depicting sexual harassment with a lady chasing a man with a broom and he said he loved the calendar, but we weren’t to be seduced by showbusiness and that Victoria sponges and pickles were much more worthwhile!”

You’re now a grandma of six. What do your family make of it all?

“They have all been brilliant. My husband, Ian, was acting as a chauffeur and handyman and carrying my bag throughout the whole experience. My daughter Lizzie had a year off after university and helped me so much with it all. The grandkids have watched the film and know all about it. One of them was heard to exclaim when she was little: ‘look at grandma, all her clothes have fallen off!’

Is there any truth in the story that the friendship group split up over a row about the film?

“Sadly, yes. The girls didn't agree that it was Angela's decision to do the film and that we had to tell a story but it had to be Angela's decision because it was her husband who had died. So half of them retired at the beginning of 2001 as a protest, thinking that it would stop the film. But of course it didn’t.”

What are you most proud of looking back on this journey?

“I am proud of our legacy and that these charity calendars are still being made. We have had so many calendars sent to us since. One of the most memorable being the mastectomy ladies, raising money for Breast Cancer and The Royal Marsden Hospital. And all kinds from butchers, fishermen and on horseback, you name it. - Some of them awful, some excellent, but all with fundraising at their heart. I’m delighted to be attending the Ladies First Calendar launch and seeing their calendar for the first time.” What advice do you have for the 2027 calendar cohort?

“You have to just keep trusting in what you’re doing and keep sight of why you're doing it. Every calendar sold will make a difference. But what becomes quickly clear, is how it also makes a difference to the people taking part, not just the charities.”

The Original WI Calendar

The aim had been to raise £5,000 and to have a calendar dedicated to the late memory of her friend Angela Baker’s late husband John. The effect of the calendar was expected to last three weeks, but 27 years on it has raised a whopping £6.5 million for the then-named Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, now Blood Cancer UK.

In September 2003, the blockbusting film ‘Calendar Girls, ' based on the story of the Alternative WI Calendar, was premiered at the Odeon, Leicester Square, with Tricia’s character played by Dame Helen Mirren.

The following year the book “The Calendar Girl’s Story” was published and, has since been reprinted and translated into many languages, including Japanese. The girls also posed for further calendars in 2004, 2005 and 2007, as well as a recipe calendar in 2008 and a ten-year anniversary edition in 2010.

The stage musical version, ‘The Girls,’ written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has throughout the world including Australia, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Israel, Brazil and Greece, as well as enjoying two UK national tours and a stint in London’s West End. Post-show bucket collections have added thousands more to the charity funds.