A mother of two has brought her friends together to pose for a naked calendar to raise money for the London Marathon – a race which she will be doing without any shoes on.

Annie Joyce, 40, from Wymondham, has a place in the 26-mile run around the capital next April in aid of the charity Break, despite having never run before. And unlike the other 30,000 runners, Ms Joyce has decided she will discard her running shoes, opting for her bare feet instead.

She said: 'It's a way of making more money to try and run the marathon in bare feet.

'And with the calendar, I had been talking to a group of women I had met through Twitter, and I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden we decided to do a naked calendar to raise more money before the race.'

The 12 women, known as the Barefaced Chicks, have fittingly themed the calendar 'shoes', so in every photograph, taken at the Imagine Spa in Blofield Heath, each woman only has a pair of shoes on. Ms Joyce added: 'We have spent so long getting the calendar together, that the thought of getting my clothes off meant I couldn't care less.'

Local companies have each sponsored a page on the calendar, which was initially meant to cover printing and production costs, but as the photographers and printers provided their services free of charge, this meant that all of the sponsorship went directly to Break.

Liz Richards, from Break, a charity helping young people and families, said: 'The Barefaced Chicks are a very brave group of women supporting fellow chick Annie in her 'bare foot' London Marathon fundraising for Break.

'As a fundraising group they have gone the extra mile, finding sponsors and setting up a website and social media to promote their naked calendar which is awesome.

' I'd like to thank each and every one of them for supporting Break and I know the calendar will be a huge success.

The calendar will be launched at the Kett's Tavern on Kett's Hill on Tuesday, November 20 from 6pm.

The women who feature in the calendar will be there with the sponsors and Break charity. All are welcome for drinks and nibbles. The calendars cost �6 if purchased before the launch, �8 after that. They can also be bought at www.barefacedchicks.co.uk after this date. The other women in the calendar are: Amy Vincent, Andr�e Byron, Annie Joyce, Dalia Blake, Dawn Hopkins, Elaine Vincent, Emily Barclay, Jennifer Nicholls, Kerry Davis, Megan Stephenson, Sarah Daniels, Sarah Gray.