Mother and daughter pose naked in photo-shoot

LIKE any loving mum, when Irene Maxwell learned her daughter was fighting breast cancer, she immediately offered to do anything she could to help.

But the 69-year-old didn’t foresee slipping off her clothes to pose naked for a fundraising calendar.

On Sunday, Irene joined her daughter, mum of two Rosie Sutherland, 41, for an unusual photo-shoot — starkers in the garden of an Oxgangs Road house, their blushes spared only by some strategically placed laundry.

It is all part of a plan hatched by Rosie to raise £35,000 for a breast cancer charity, after she learned two weeks ago that she faced a nightmare battle against the condition.

Now she is racing against time to complete two Calendar Girls-style calendars — one male, one female — as well as organise a fundraising ball before undergoing a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery next week.

Mum Irene said that stripping off for the calendar was the least she could do.

“My daughter is a beautiful, wonderful woman and a fantastic mum. We were all shocked when we found out she has breast cancer,” said Irene of Park Grove, Corstorphine.

“I didn’t hesitate for a moment when she asked me if I’d pose.”

Rosie’s shock diagnosis came shortly after she split with husband Alan, former Real Radio and Forth 2 presenter, Big Al.

She spotted a lump on her right breast in January. A series of checks, biopsies and an MRI scan at the Western General last month confirmed Grade A cancer in her right breast.

Rosie immediately decided to raise money for Breast Cancer Care and within days had arranged for friends and family to strip off at locations around the city including Ikea at Straiton, Hillend dry ski slope and even Fairmilehead Parish Church hall.

“My operation is on Monday and I’m determined that the calendars and everything for the ball will be in place by then,” said Rosie, who lives at Queen Margaret Close, Fairmilehead, with daughters Emma, 12, and Kate, aged nine.

“I know people say I should be taking it easy,” she added. “But doing this keeps me busy and takes my mind off everything that’s happening.”

“I had to sit the girls down and explain that mummy wasn’t very well but that I was going to be fine.

“But as the operation gets closer I know they’ll worry.”

The calendar includes a shot of Rosie at Hillend with a pair of skis to protect her modesty and another of some male friends gathered around the piano at Fairmilehead Parish Church Hall.

The 2013 calendars will go on sale at £12.50 each. The ball, which will be hosted by Forth One DJ Grant Stott, at Edinburgh Corn Exchange on May 12, is expected to raise a further £15,000.

Rosie added: “Everyone has been incredible. No-one seems the least bit bothered about taking off their clothes.” For more information, go to www.nakedinspirations.co.uk.