Imagine posing nude for a calendar in Malta... Would you? Known Maltese faces have plucked up the courage, stripping for a good cause – having been assured their private parts would not show!

In tomorrow’s issue of Pink, which features behind-the-scenes shots as they prepare for their daunting photo shoot, singer Thea Garrett, European Commission director Joanna Drake and blogger Alison Bezzina talk about why they did it.

The calendar is raising funds for Hospice Malta and is the brainchild of Nanette Brimmer, who is also directing the play Calendar Girls, due to be staged at the Manoel Theatre next month.

The 2003 film was based on the true story of a rural group of middle-aged women, who posed nude for a calendar to raise £500 to replace a hospital sofa after one lost her husband to cancer. They raised £3.5 million, funding hospital wings and cancer research.

Now the idea has been reproduced here – a mission Brimmer tells Pink she never imagined would be so tough.

“I assure you it takes a lot of courage... It is something relatively new and these women had a lot at stake, Malta being the small island that it is.”

The September issue, out with The Times tomorrow, also focuses on celiac disease and the problems sufferers face when eating out. Its recipe offers a special, gluten-free treat for them too.

Pink is published by Allied Newspapers Ltd, printed by Progress Press and produced by Mediamaker.