TV presenter Wendy Turner has stripped off at a charity exhibition to pay tribute to her best friend who was ‘stolen’ from her life. The star has opened up about the project
Having spent the best part of the last 30 years as a TV presenter, Wendy Turner-Webster is no stranger to posing for pictures, but being asked to take part in her first topless photoshoot was something of a first. However, stripping off for BUSTOUT 100, a special photographic tribute to breast cancer awareness featuring the striking images of 100 bare chests, was important enough to persuade her to strip off.
“I’ve never been asked to do anything like this before, but I thought – if other people have been brave and got their breasts out, then so will I,” she says. “When I was younger, I did a lot of theatre and panto. You get used to sharing a dressing room with someone else and stripping off or getting changed in the wings,” she explains. “It didn’t faze me then and it doesn’t faze me now.
The resulting image is currently on display in a London art gallery. While the pictures are anonymous and don’t show any faces, they do give people’s age and occupation. “So, mine says: ‘TV presenter, 57’, which narrows it down a bit!” she laughs.
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Yet behind the laughter there is a serious side to Wendy’s decision to take part. She is doing it in memory of her best friend Shirley Galligan, who died two years ago, aged 55, four years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. “It was such a major thing that happened in my life that I wanted to show my support. Breast cancer stole my best friend from me and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her,” she says.
Wendy and Shirley met 30 years ago. Wendy, who appeared on TV in the ‘90s presenting Absolutely Animals and Pet Rescue, is a passionate campaigner for animal rights and Shirley worked for the Born Free Foundation. “We met on a train and clicked straightaway and became the best of friends,” Wendy recalls.
“We were always meeting up and going a bit wild, as neither of us had any responsibilities. So, we’d go shopping, go to parties and drink cocktails and we once even went off to Paris on a whim. We shared a passion for animals, but we had the same sense of humour and would laugh until our bodies ached.”
When Wendy married actor Gary Webster, Shirley was a bridesmaid and when the couple had sons Jack, 25 and Freddie, 22, Shirley was their godmother. But six years ago, Shirley found a lump in her breast. To both her and Wendy’s relief, after a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, she was given the all-clear.
“Then four years ago I received a call from her,” Wendy says. “She told me not to be sad and not to cry, because she was going to need all my strength to help her fight, but her cancer had come back and spread to her liver, bones and lungs. I kept it together on the phone, but of course I was sobbing after the call. I was so shocked. I offered her any of my organs, but it was too late for that; her cancer was at stage 4. When we met up, I barely recognised her. She’d lost weight and she looked grey. I was so shocked.”
Wendy, sister of former Blue Peter and GMTV presenter Anthea Turner, did all she could, taking her friend to chemotherapy sessions and oncology appointments. Shirley seemed to turn a corner and the two friends even enjoyed a weekend away in Windsor to celebrate. Then a few months later came the devastating news that the cancer had now spread to Shirley’s brain. She was admitted to a hospice and Wendy, who lives in west London, was frequently at her bedside.
“She didn’t realise where she was and she thought she was staying at a five star hotel, which I was grateful for, because it softened the blow for her,” Wendy remembers. “We were always making plans and even when she was in the hospice and dying, we were still talking about visiting Kenya and seeing the wild animals. I would hold her hand and go along with the plans, but inside, my heart was breaking into a million pieces.”
BUSTOUT 100 features 99 women and one man, to symbolise the one per cent of breast cancer cases that occur in men. The participants are a mixture of survivors, those currently undergoing treatment and supporters like Wendy. The project aims to raise awareness and much-needed funds for the Pink Ribbon Foundation, which supports UK charities helping people affected by breast cancer.
Wendy says: “Shirley would have been tickled pink. She was the PR director of Born Free and she knew the value of publicity, so she’d have thought it was a great idea for the Pink Ribbon Foundation. She would have been impressed by the bravery of the people taking part, but she also had a brilliant sense of humour, so I know she’d have found it quite hilarious that I was doing it too. If there was a laugh to be found in any situation Shirley would find it.”
The BUSTOUT 100 exhibition runs until 5 April at the Firepit Art Gallery, London. Visit pinkribbonfoundation.org.uk for more
