CALENDARS that show intimate pictures of breast cancer survivors will soon be on sale in Worcester supermarkets to help give a charity campaign an early Christmas present.

The calendars, which show revealing but tasteful pictures of women who have battled breast cancer and others involved in fighting for better facilities in Worcester for patients, will be on sale in Tesco in Warndon and St Peter’s in Worcester and in Evesham.

Each branch will be supplied with 220 calendars to begin with but more will be delivered, depending on the demand shown by shoppers.

The calendars, which cost £6 each, will be available to buy from Monday, November 30 and all profits go to the Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign to create a £2.5 million dedicated breast care unit at 220 Newtown Road in the grounds of Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The campaign, which your Worcester News has adopted as its own, has now raised £250,000. This is thanks in part to the generosity of our readers but more support is now needed if the target is to be met.

Carole Crowe, the campaign co-ordinator, said: “The calendar would make a great early Christmas present. The campaign is going really well but there is still a way to go. We just need lots of support from the people of Worcestershire.” Women featured in the calendar include PE teacher Susie Coleman of Warndon Villages, who was just 26 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and is now a patron of the Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign. She appears as the calendar girl for September.

We previously reported how patients currently have to sit in cramped waiting rooms, sometimes in narrow corridors, climb up and down stairs and trek between clinics spread out through the main hospital for examinations. If prosthetics are needed after surgery, they have to be fitted behind a curtain in a busy office.

The new unit would mean a more attractive patient area with all the clinics under one roof and more protection of patient privacy and dignity.