Cheeky naked pictures of wives and girlfriends of servicemen on charity calendar raise Rs 18 lakh for soldiers injured in Afghan, Iraq

SWAGs strip to help war heroes

Cheeky naked pictures of wives and girlfriends of servicemen on charity calendar raise Rs 18 lakh for soldiers injured in Afghan, Iraq

A group of military wives and girlfriends have become 'calendar girls' to raise money for injured servicemen and women.

The SWAGs (Service Wives And Girlfriends) posed naked with guns, planes and tanks for the 2010 charity calendar.

Dare to bare: Around 50 women posed for the calendar at bases and training centres in Hampshire

A total of 50 volunteers, all wives and girlfriends of men from the three Armed services, were photographed at bases and training centres in Hampshire.

The calendar has already raised ufffd26,000 (Rs 18 lakh), which will go to help servicemen who have been wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nervous, but proud

Lisa Fellows-Patel (43), who lives near Bath, Somerset, and poses as April in the calendar, said she is 'proud' to have supported our troops.

"An old school friend is in the British army and was posted to Afghanistan. I felt the only way I could truly support him from home was to do charity work for Help For Heroes and as I model for fun a girlfriend suggested I help with the calendar.

"I was very proud to be involved with the calendar as I truly admire the work that the British armed forces are doing in Afghanistan.

"The night before I was extremely nervous but told myself that if the armed forces are overseas fighting on my behalf I would have the courage to get naked and do my bit. The finished calendar is fabulous it's very cheeky but not offensive and I love it."

Kelly Monk (20), whose boyfriend Andrew Mason (21), serves in the Princess of Wales' Second Battalion, came up with the idea for the calendar. Kelly said, "I got together with Andrew's sister Sam to do the shoot and it just snowballed from there. We were nervous at first but then we really started enjoying it and everyone had a laugh. My boyfriend is fine with it. He knows that it's for a good cause."

Photographer Roy Goodwin, who helped shoot the calendar, added, "About 50 girls got involved in total and they were all volunteers. They put in a lot of work and dedication to make the calendar happen and we even had to smuggle them into an army base for one shot."

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