ALL is revealed ? well, not quite all ? in a 2006 calendar featuring photographs of several local ladies in various states of undress.

Sales of the KEMH Exposed calendar will raise funds for the planned replacement building for King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The project was the result of a group of friends, inspired by a similar fund-raising effort by the Women's Institute in the UK, made famous by the film .

The calendar was launched yesterday at the Reid Street offices of Butterfield Bank, which has underwritten the costs of producing the calendar so all the proceeds from the sales will go to the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB).

Each month features a different hospital department and a revealing picture of a volunteer model, with strategically placed objects ensuring that not too much is on view. At yesterday's press conference, double doors opened to reveal four of the scantily clad models ? Jane Spurling, Sharon Naninni, Gertie Barker and Ann Spencer Arscott ? whose smiling faces were showing above the banner they were carrying to promote the calendar.

Peggy Couper, one of the organisers and one of the models, said: "We had a lot of laughs making it. Some of the pictures came out awfully and we said, 'We can't have this showing'!

"We wanted the pictures to be just suggestive enough for people to know that we didn't have a whole lot on." She said 3,000 calendars had been printed, to be sold at $15 each. The initial target is to raise $45,000, but there is a provision for more calendars to be printed by Bermuda Press if the demand is there.

Having seen the film , the women decided they wanted to repeat the efforts of the British housewives in the story to raise money for a worthy cause in Bermuda.

"When the issue of the hospital came up, I mentioned it to my friends and said that this was something that affects everyone in Bermuda," Ms Couper said. "This is the ideal thing. Most of them were wonderful sports. And I'd like to thank the artists who helped us do it. Hopefully we will raise awareness of the need for a new hospital as well as raise some money for it."

Ms Couper was helped in organising the calendar by Jill Kempe and Marjorie Stanton.

The four models who appeared yesterday are joined in the calendar by Ms Couper, Joan Cabral, Duell Field, Jill Kempe, Jane West, Dorea Grant, Ianthia Wade and Judy Rollin.

BHB chairman Jonathan Brewin admitted to having been "somewhat surprised" when the group of women approached him with the idea.

"We are thinking very long term about the strategic health care needs of our community," Mr. Brewin said.

"To have people helping us in this way shows people are happy to support us. And for that, we thank them.

"The development of the hospital will be an extensive and costly project. There is still discussion about its final design and location, but everyone in Bermuda is in agreement that the hospital development is critical for the people of Bermuda."

Butterfield Bank president and chief executive officer Alan Thompson said: "With so many people making this calendar such a success, we are very proud to be able to underwrite the cost of the calendar so that every dollar raised by its purchase can got towards this extremely important project."

The calendar pictures were taken by Ann Spurling, while Will Collieson designed the sets and Donna Pink supervised make-up.

Editing and design was overseen by Brimstone Media Ltd. and Cosmic Design Studios helped with digital image manipulation.