TWO women who have launched a controversial saucy calendar to raise money for charity have been given a helping hand -- by one of the original Calendar Girls.

Barnoldswick town councillor Jennifer Purcell and her friend Dianne Hodkinson, have produced a calendar featuring men from SITA recycling and waste depots in East Lancashire.

But the project was put in doubt after Lancashire County Council objected and refused to help with sponsorship, because it felt the publication would affect its name and reputation.

Bosses at SITA, a contractor for the county council, also backed away from the scheme as a result. But hundreds of copies are still set to roll off the presses tomorrow after advanced sales of the calendar covered printing costs.

And grandmother of four Moyra Livesey, Miss May in the Rylstone WI calendar which sparked the nude craze, has donated a copy of the publication to help out.

Moyra, 55, who runs Birchfield Residential Home, in Gorse Road, Blackburn and commutes daily to work from Rylstone, near Skipton, decided to donate a framed copy to help Jennifer and Dianne raise the £2,000 costs.

Moyra said: "It seemed such a shame to knock it when it was for such a good cause and when it is quite innocent and tongue-in-cheek.

"Lancashire County Council obviously aren't as enlightened as the Women's Institute and I was glad to be able to help out."

The middle-aged members of Rylstone Women's Institute helped raise £500,000 for charity and their story was recently turned into a film starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

Money from sales of the £3 calendar will go to the Frank Street Old Age Pensioners' Centre, in Barnoldswick, which needs £30,000-worth of repair and renovation work.

The calendar is being launched at the Frank Street Centre on Saturday, at 1pm and Jennifer and Dianne hope to sell 1,000 copies in an afternoon.