KEMP Hospice has kissed goodbye to a £6,000 windfall after trustees unanimously turned down a tanning salon's offer to produce raunchy calendars for its appeal.

Trustee chairman Dr Michael Taylor said the two calendars - featuring scantily-clad men and women respectively - would have been "totally inappropriate" and added both patients and his colleagues had raised objections.

Justin Exley, who owns Just Tan in Coventry Street, Kidderminster, originally had the hospice's blessing for the unusual fundraiser - which he had stressed would be "artistic rather than rude".

Now he plans to go ahead with the project and donate profits from the calendars' sale, which he estimates could top £6,000, to the Acorn Children's Hospice Trust appeal to build a new Worcester hospice for terminally ill children.

Mr Exley said: "It would have been nice to do it for people in Wyre Forest. It's a shame but it's one of those things.

"If Kemp aren't interested in it that's their loss."

The Sutton Park Road hospice is appealing for money to open a bigger and better day care centre - and subsequently an in-patient unit - in a former Mason Road hotel for people suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

It is still short of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Dr Taylor declined to elaborate on why trustees rejected the much-needed cash.

Mr Exley originally thought the project would raise £3,000 for Kemp's appeal but he said since the idea was featured in the Shuttle/Times & News in January he has been inundated with people eager to get their hands on the calendars - and model for them.

He added they should be in Kidderminster shops by the autumn.

Campaign manager John Fletcher said he hoped the public would not misinterpret the decision.

"This doesn't indicate we're not still needing all the financial help we can get. We would hate to think that it would discourage people from wanting to do things to help us," he said.