TV presenter supports charity bike calendar

The Mefi Ous Maidens [‘Beware Girls’ in Guernsey French] calendar features photos of local women bike owners on a variety of machines chosen by calendar organiser Jayne Packham.

Mrs Packham, a founder member of the Mums of Anarchy and member of the Triumph Owners’ Club, has been behind the calendar since 2015 and since then sales have raised £10,000 for the Helping Jonah, Helping Others charity.

This year a copy of the calendar was sent to Henry Cole, a well-known TV presenter in biking circles whose love of the machines has seen him present such programmes as The Motorbike Show and Shed and Buried, which are shown on ITV4 and ITV respectively as well as the Discovery networks and The Travel Channel.

The calendar was sent off by Mrs Packham’s friend and Alderney resident Lee Corbet: ‘He moves in those kinds of circles,’ she said.

Mr Cole had a photo taken with it and sent that back to Mr Corbet.

‘I was super excited, I really was,’ said Mrs Packham when she saw the picture. ‘I was chuffed to bits.’

Unlike other fundraising calendars in which lots of bare flesh features, Mrs Packham said she wanted to make this one ‘family friendly’. ‘This is something for everybody. People don’t have to hide them in the shed,’ she said.

As well as raising funds, she said her goal was to encourage women bikers: ‘There are more females riding bikes in Guernsey than ever before,’ she said.

The front of the 2021 calendar features a Kawasaki H2R which belonged to the late Zef Eisenberg, to whom Mrs Packham pays tribute in her introduction, recalling how nervous she had been calling him to ask to borrow a bike and how helpful he was. ‘He agreed without hesitation. That’s the sort of bloke he was,’ she said.

With the calendar selling well, she said that this would be her last year working on it, since it takes a lot of organising – although she added that she said the same thing last year.

• Copies of the calendar are available from Forest Road Garage, Bridge Motor Shop, Vale Garage, Maryland, Vistas, Braye Road Garage, Millards, Duques, Jeffreys Service Station and Tozers newsagent on the Bridge. Copies can also be bought on eBay here