IT'S been 10 years since they stripped off for a calendar. But the ladies of Rylstone Women's Institute proved they still had the naked ambition to raise money for charity when they bared all for a new photoshoot this week.

And one of the original Calendar Girls, Nelson-born Christine Clancy, said it wasn't half as scary the second time around.

“I was much more nervous at the thought of posing naked the first time,” said Christine, 57, a college administration assistant who now lives in Skipton.

“This time we just got on with it. We told Terry Logan, the photographer, that there might be a bit of deterioration this time, but there wasn't a problem thankfully!”

This time the six Calendar Girls have opted for colour photographs, rather than the more forgiving sepia-tinted pictures which helped them raise £2million for leukaemia research and inspired the hit movie starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

The calendar still shows the women taking part in traditional WI activities, such as gardening, baking, and knitting, wearing little more than strings of pearls and a smile.

Chris-tine, whose father and sister still live in Colne, can be seen serving tea with a conveniently-placed teapot on the September page, and playing golf in June.

She said: “We've had a wonderful time doing the calendar and the promotion of it. We’ve been all over the world. It's been hard work because I work full-time in admin at Craven College in Skipton as well as doing all of this, so I have to fit everything into my holidays.

“The students aren't the least bit interested in it all to be honest, but the staff love it.”

The women, including Angela Baker, 63, Tricia Stewart, 60, Beryl Bamforth, 75, Lynda Logan, 65, Chris Clancy, 57, and Ros Fawcett, 59, were inspired to make the original calendar in 1999 after Angela's husband John died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

They originally aimed to generate enough money to buy a sofa for a hospital waiting room, but ended up selling 88,000 calendars — more than Britney Spears or the Pirelli calendar that year.

Christine, a former student at Walverden Primary School, Nelson, trained at Rolls-Royce secretarial school in Barnoldswick. She moved to Yorkshire in 1971, aged 19, when she married husband John.

It's fair to say she never imagined she’'d be stripping off and posing for what would become one of the best-selling calendars of all time.

She said: “It's amazing to think that we've raised £2million and that we've made a real difference, that some people have got better when they might not have done because of the money we have raised.”

So will she be up for getting her kit off in another 10 years?

“Never say never, as Tricia always says,” laughed Christine. “If we're all still here and the interest is still there then maybe we will. If we did do it in another 10 years I still wouldn't be as old as Beryl, our eldest member, who is 75.

“People keep telling us how inspirational we are but, to be honest, we never thought of it that way.

"We just got on with it. But if we do inspire people to do something they've always wanted to do then that's great.”

l The Calendar Girls 2010 calendar costs £9.95 and is available from the website below or by phone on 01736 336 960.