Charities differ over topless model fundraising
Howard Lake | 20 July 2008 | News
Topless model Claire Tully has been told by a leading breast cancer charity in Ireland it does not want her raising money on its behalf while another charity in the same field has accepted her offer of money.
The ‘page three’ personality was instructed by the Marie Keating Foundation not to raise money on its behalf when she takes part in a television charity event next month.
“I just think it would be wrong for Claire to do it, raising money for our organisation, in the work that we do. We could be very mercenary and say we will take any money from anybody who will raise it for us, but there has to be a stand taken around certain issues,” said Lillian McGovern, chief executive of the foundation.
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Ms Tully is due to take part in Fáilte Towers, which will open its doors to an unsuspecting public on August 2, live on RTÉ One.
Presented by Aidan Power and Baz Ashmawy, Fáilte Towers will feature 12 celebrities battling the heat of the kitchen, the steam of the laundry and the toil of the toilets as they are left to their own devices to run a fully functioning hotel — all in the name of charity.
“The purpose of the show is to raise money for the charity of your choice and I wanted to do it for a breast cancer charity because my mother had breast cancer and my grandmother had it. It’s something that is very close to my heart,” Ms Tully said.
Ms Tully is guaranteed to raise a minimum of €5,000 for the charity of her choice, which will now be the National Breast Cancer Research Institute Centre in Galway.
Ms Tully has defended topless models, citing the influence of the Church and religion as the reasons some people were against the practice.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.