The gloves are off – and so are the shorts as these lads and lasses join a dad’s cancer fight by posing for a saucy boxing gym calendar.
They have stripped with just sparring gloves, weights and power bags to cover their modesty.
The fitness fans are helping their popular instructor Lee Welland raise £30,000 for private therapy abroad.
NHS doctors say there is nothing more they can do for Lee, 34, after nearly four years battling cancer.
But the married dad can look forward to Christmas with a bit more hope as he starts treatment in Austria.
The former college lecturer is well known for his own tireless charity work and he has been stunned by the response to his own plight.
Well-wishers raised more than £20,000 just weeks after his terminal diagnosis in the summer and the £10 calendar has made £1,000 so far.
“My friends have been great doing this to help me,” said Lee.
“I can’t thank them enough for what they have done. It’s an amazing effort and I’m hoping that it will give me more time with my family.”
Lee, who lives with wife Sarah and daughter Eva, three, in Sapcote, Leicestershire, was first told he had kidney cancer in February 2016.
He had a kidney removed but doctors discovered cancer had spread to his skull and he had two ops to remove tumours, in August 2016 and November last year.
Lee said: “The cancer has spread around my body. It has made me so exhausted that I have had to stay in bed a lot, which meant I can’t play with Eva.
“Then I had really bad head pain when the cancer had spread to my skull and I couldn’t spend time with her as the noise she made would cause me so much pain, which was incredibly upsetting for me.
“As the cancer has spread to my bones it has completely disabled my right arm so I can’t pick her up or get her dressed.”
Lee has already had two sessions at the Austrian clinic.
He said: “In June I was told I had between six and 12 months to live.
“But I wasn’t having that. I’ve got a wife and daughter to live for.
“So I started researching alternative treatments and came across this treatment in Austria.
“It works by the patient being put into a heat chamber which heats the body temperature to fever levels so the body thinks it’s fighting an infection and it encourages the immune system to work hard. This is combined with immunotherapy drugs.”
Lee will be monitored with scans over the next few months to check his progress. “I’ve got so much to live for, which is why I’m desperate to have this treatment,” he said.
“People with end stage four kidney cancer like me have been given this treatment, and 15 per cent of them have survived. So it does give me some hope.
“Travelling to and from Austria means that I’m away from Eva a lot and that is so hard, but she’s the reason I’m doing it so hopefully I will be able to spend more time with her as she grows up.”
Wife Sarah, 34, a teacher, said: “The treatment gives Lee a real fighting chance to beat this. If his life expectancy can be increased then it’s all worth it.”
Lee runs Powerbags Fitness in Nuneaton, Warwicks, and has raised money for other good causes, including a recent world record attempt for the largest bootcamp training session to help meningitis charity Georgie’s Gift.
Friend Luana Lee, one of the calendar girls, said: “Lee has always been involved in raising money for charities and even fundraised whilst he was extremely ill with cancer.
“Lee deserves every opportunity to beat this and we want to help a family keep a much loved son, brother, husband and dad.”
Lee added: “The calendar is fantastic. I’ve been training these people and normally see them with their clothes on so to see the calendar was a big surprise.
“But they have done an amazing job, and I really hope that it helps fund treatment for me.
“You keep battling away, whatever comes up, that has always been my motto.
“I will never give up doing what I can to not only survive cancer but to beat it.”
- You can buy the calendar by visiting Lee’s Just Giving page - CLICK HERE
