Naked date with destiny for epilepsy charity

Jan 25 2009 by Joanne Butcher, Sunday Sun

CALENDAR girls eat your hearts out . . . you’re not the only ones who can whip off your clothes for charity.

Donna Hodgson, 33, is baring all along with four other women to raise awareness and cash for Epilepsy Action.

The ladies — who are travelling to Durham for the photoshoot from as far away as Manchester, Birmingham and Norfolk — will don kinky basques and stilettoes . . . and also pose nude for the calendar snaps.

They met through Epilepsy Action’s online forum and have since become close friends.

As well as raising charity cash, they hope the calendar will send out a positive message.

Mum-of-two Donna, of Trimdon Station, County Durham, said: “We all rely on the forum. It offers support when you’re down or you have had a bad day with seizures.

“I had a stroke due to epilepsy and I was in a wheelchair, but talking to others helped me.”

Donna, who lives with daughter Yasmin, 11, and son Macaullie, eight, is training to be an epilepsy councillor.

Epileptics suffer frequent seizures, caused by sudden bursts of electrical activity in the brain, and it can make sufferers act erratically.

Donna said: “People think you are drunk or that you have learning difficulties.

“We want to show people that epilepsy is nothing to be ashamed of.”

She added: “I have spent 33 years being stared at, so this doesn’t scare me!”

The photoshoot will take place at the Fallen Angel Hotel in Durham city, and anyone who would like to make a donation or who can help support the calendar should call Donna on 07512-240235. For more information on epilepsy, visit www.epilepsy.org.uk

The calendar will be released in the summer, ready for 2010.