Businesses in Devizes and nearby villages have bared all for a naked charity calendar in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Devizes in the Raw was the brainchild of photographer Mike Venner who had help from his wife, Mo, during the photo shoots – both are long-time fundraising supporters of Macmillan.

Mr Venner said: “I have friends who own businesses so I asked them to be a part of it first.

“I knew Andy Hobbs and Dan Curtice from the butchers (County Butchers in Little Brittox) would be keen to support it.

“The hardest part was getting people to relax and feel comfortable but I had my wife Mo to help with that.

“Joanne Gardener at Mystique was fantastic. She was nervous but her two grandchildren had told her to go for it.

“Then on the other side of things you had Andy and Dan who were like ‘can we try this position?’ “It was interesting to have people from all different walks of life.”

Springfords & Rose Ltd in Devizes produced the calendar at a base rate and the costs were covered by the Marlborough Macmillan Committee, which will claim the money back so that everything raised goes to the charity.

David Springford, managing director at Springfords & Rose Ltd printers, said: “We were delighted to produce the calendars for Mike and Macmillan.

“I just can’t quite work out how Mike managed to talk me into becoming Mr November.

“It was quite fun and it’s for a very good cause, which is I why we got involved.”

Other businesses who posed in the buff included staff at the Millstream in Marden and owner of The Beehive Vintage Lifestyle Shop in Devizes, Chris Hood.

Kate Patterson, landlady at the Millstream, said: “After a couple of bottles of champagne we were ok.

“There were four of us that did it, a girl from the kitchen, me and two girls that work out front. None of us had done anything like it before.

“Doing it together was good fun, fair play to the people that did it on their own.”

The raunchy but tasteful calendar will be officially launched at a Macmillan Coffee Morning in the Corn Exchange, Devizes, on September 20, from 9.30am-4pm.

Calendars will be on sale at all the businesses involved in the project. To make an order or call the Macmillan Marlborough committee on (01672) 515958 or email Vanessahillier@hotmail.co.uk