A chance meeting on holiday led to more than 200 people travelling to Essex to see the most famous member of the WI.

Whilst on holiday in Turkey last year, Halstead WI member Jackie Hawkes and her husband met another English couple.

After talking, they discovered that the other woman was in fact Angela Baker, the inspiration for the Calendar Girls film, stage show and new musical.

members of Rylstone WI in North Yorkshire to strip for a calendar in 2000 to raise money for Leukaemia and Lyphoma Research.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma had claimed the life of her first husband two years earlier.

Jackie invited Angela and Charles to stay with them and visit the other members of Halstead WI.

Last Thursday, more than 200 WI members from groups across the country, plus invited guests, got to meet Angela and Charles at a special charity evening held at Colne Valley Golf Club, in Earls Colne.