Cheadle and Gatley WI take on the Manchester Virtual Walk

Stockport’s version of the Calendar Girls are set to make a comeback – this time dressed in stylish 70s clothes!

Members of Cheadle and Gatley Women’s Institute will be donning their fashionable flares and florals for the Manchester Virtual Walk.

This year, we’re encouraging participants in its annual 10km walk in May to adopt a 70s theme marking the decade we opened in 1971 to celebrate our 50th birthday.

An invitation the local WI has readily accepted, after 15 members sported a Calendar Girls theme last year, raising £1,200 in sponsorship for the hospice in the process.

Sandra, from Cheadle, is a sewing enthusiast and repairs dresses donated to our bridal shop, one of several voluntary roles she undertakes for our hospice.

Friend Adela Wilson, from Cheadle Hulme, has helped her make 1,000 bandanas for participants in the walk which can be done when and how people like.

The distance can be completed at once or split over days. Organisers say participants can walk, skip, run, hop or cover the distance however they wish.

Sandra has been volunteering for more than eight years since losing her husband Alan and her mother-in-law Margaret Rycroft, a patient at St Ann’s.

Sandra, who worked at Cheadle Medical Practice, said: “Volunteering gives me a sense of purpose now that I’m retired and I feel as though I’m making a difference.”

To sponsor the WI visit www.mmwalk.org.uk/fundraising/the-calender-girls-2021