Baring all for a cause | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

There is no way Shane Maranesi would have posed naked for a calendar 12 months ago.

But his wife Helen's losing battle with cancer has changed his mind and now even his workmates have come along for the ride.

Maranesi, 35, is one of the team at Parkhouse Landscape and Garden Supplies, who all feature in a 2005 calendar going on sale today to raise money for the Nurse Maude Centenary Hospice in Merivale.

The Hoon Hay resident is Mr May and says he is blown away with the support his boss Noel Dick and colleagues have given him since Helen was diagnosed with melanoma in April and told she only had two months to live.

Seven months on she has shown an amazing will for life, although is getting sicker daily.

The photographs in the calendar of Shane and his workmates in compromising, yet tasteful, positions, have given Helen and the couple's two daughters Stephanie, 10, and Ashleigh, eight, a good chuckle.

"Ashleigh wanted to know where the photograph was without the sign in front," Maranesi said.

The Maranesi family's personal experience as well as the death of another close friend to cancer prompted Dick, the owner of the landscaping firm Shane works for, to look for a way to help cancer patients in Christchurch.

He had just seen the movie 'Calendar Girls' and thought the concept would be a winner here.

"I thought 'why couldn't we do that?' so approached the guys at work and asked them if they would take their clothes off. They all looked at me like I was a nutter and then said 'yes'," Dick said.

He told Maranesi about his idea and the Christchurch version of the calendar was born.

"He said it was a good idea as long as he wasn't involved. We told him that was no problem until we were ready to take the photographs. Then we said 'drop your daks'," Dick said.

Maranesi said he was happy to get naked for such a good cause. Helen herself had spent three months at the hospice and has now returned home to be with her family.

All money raised from the calendar sales will go towards buying equipment for the centenary hospice. The costs of producing the calendar have been met by people gifting their time and covering expenses such as printing and photography.

Nurse Maude Association spokesperson Bobbi Oliver said they were grateful for the efforts of the team. The government covers only 75% of the hospice's costs, with the remainder coming though donations from the public.

The calendars, by photographer Paula Grant, are $10 and available from The Christchurch Star, Parkhouse Landscape and Garden Supplies branches in Sockburn and Bromley and Nurse Maude.