Page 3 icons rally round former Sun glamour girl Belinda Gilfoyle battling cancer after being given just MONTHS to live
Belinda Gilfoyle's modelling mates decided to reunite and set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for £250,000 specialist treatment in Germany
WHEN doctors told former Sun glamour girl Belinda Gilfoyle she had just months to live, she felt the world had written her off.
But the devastated mum of three hadn’t reckoned on the power of Page 3.
Her modelling mates refused to accept Belinda’s grim prognosis from a rare form of cancer and banded together to give her a chance of life.
The girls set up a page in a bid to raise £250,000 to send her to a top German clinic for treatment.
And today the pals are back where they belong — on the pages of Britain’s favourite paper — to raise money and awareness of Belinda’s rare cancer. Speaking at the Vanity Fair-style shoot with eight of her Page 3 colleagues for The Sun, brave Belinda said: “I cannot thank these wonderful women enough.
“To be here today, feeling this fabulous with everyone’s support behind me feels like a dream.” Belinda, 49, modelled for Page 3 in the mid-Nineties under her maiden name Belinda Charlton.
In 2008, ten years after her modelling heyday, she first felt an agonising pain in her face.
She explained: “The only way I can describe it is like someone poking a knitting needle down my ear. It travels along the nerves like a live wire.”
Belinda, of Rochester, Kent, had to endure five years of agony before she was diagnosed in 2013 with rare cancer adenoid cystic carcinoma.
She recalled: “I was told I probably had 18 months left.
“It was like the air had been punched out of me. All I could think was, ‘How am I supposed to tell my kids this?’ ”
The consultant told Belinda that chemotherapy would prob- ably not help, and that surgery would “mutilate” her. She tried chemo anyway but that treatment did not work so Belinda went in for surgery in 2014 at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.
She added: “It was a 15-hour operation. They opened up my face and drilled through my teeth and jaw to get to the cancer.
“I was left with a scar running down my chin and neck and back up to my ear. Doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to talk or able to eat, but I beat the odds on all of them. I eat, I drink.”
Belinda was settling back into normal life when a year later, in December 2015, the cancer returned. This time the prognosis was even worse.
She said: “This time it was on my lungs. They just had to monitor its growth — there was no treatment available.
“Four months ago I had my latest scan, they found cancer in two places in my spine, in my sternum and back in my face. The doctors say there’s nothing they can do for me any more.
“It’s a horrible feeling — like everyone has given up on you.”
But husband Carl, 48, did not give up, and found out about the Hyperthermie Bochum clinic near Dortmund, which has had success in curing her rare form of cancer.
Bodyguard Carl explained: “We have to send them a blood sample, then they will hopefully offer Belinda a bespoke treatment. We’re optimistic.”
The couple hope to send the blood off this month. But if the tests reveal treatment will not work, Belinda will seek holistic treatment in Mexico to extend her life. Belinda’s daughters Nadia, 19, and Georgia, 26, have known her prognosis for a while, but it is only in the past couple of weeks that she’s told her youngest Ollie, 12, the full truth.
She says: “He’s a really sensitive boy and it’s hit him hard. But he’s been so good. He keeps offering to do everything for me. Even at his age he’s so thoughtful.”
The treatment and aftercare will cost £250,000, which Belinda cannot afford — and this is where her Page 3 pals stepped in.
As well as this shoot the group is doing fun runs and bake sales and have so far raised £14,000.
Belinda said: “I have such fond memories of my Page 3 days and we were like a family — a lot of us stayed in touch.
“Tracey Elvik and Tracy Kirby were the driving forces behind setting up my GoFundMe page, I can’t thank them enough.”
Loyal Tracey, 49, had tears in her eyes when Belinda entered the studio on Saturday in a red satin gown, and whispered: “She looks so beautiful.”
She revealed: “After the cancer spread we looked into alternative treatments and Belinda got quite upset because of the costs.
“I suggested setting up a fundraising site but she said she couldn’t ask people for money. I told her, ‘Yes you bloody can.’ ”
Meanwhile Belinda found the shoot a trip down memory lane.
She said: “Those days were a total whirlwind. We had so much fun — the travelling, the camaraderie. The whole thing was a blast — a really wonderful time.
“It’s so lovely to relive it today - this is something I’ll remember forever. Even though the circumstances aren’t the best I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
- Visit to help with the fundraising.
Dresses from left-to-right in main image
- Jenny -
- Lisa -
- Debee -
- Anna Marie -
- Tracy K -
- Belinda -
- Tracey E -
- Donna -
- Dee -
Page 3 girls rallying round Belinda
Jenny Blyth
Jenny Blyth modelled in Eighties and now works as a mobile hairdresser and beautician in London.
The 56-year-old single mum of one said: “We were all really privileged to have worked on Page 3 during those iconic years.”
Lisa Bangert
“Bangers” was one of the most famous Page 3 girls from 1992 to 2002.
Single Lisa, 46, now lives in Mansfield, Notts, and is a carer for people with Alzheimer’s. She said: “I adore my job – the people are amazing.”
Debee Ashby
Debee Page was on Page 3 from 1983 to late 90s and now runs a property firm on the Isle of Man.
The engaged mum of one, 50, said: “It’s strange to glam up again – I’m more used to wearing my trackies up on scaffolding.”
Anna Maria Kalebic
After finishing her Page 3 career in the late 90s she became a flight attendant.
Now 46, married and with three daughters, she works promoting a plant-based diet. She said: “Nothing beats the modelling days.”
Tracy Kirby
Tracy spent two years in Holloway after her 80s Page 3 heyday when she unwittingly got a job as a cash courier for a drugs ring.
Now 49, the married mum from Essex, said: “Being in prison is a constant battle for survival.”
Tracy Elvik
The 49-year-old, who modelled in the 90s, now lives overseas with her golf-course designer husband.
She says: “I’m a housewife in Russia now. These days you can forget your G-strings, I’m usually in full ski gear.
Donna Ewin
Donna now drives a black cab in London after working for Page 3 from 1987 to 1994.
The mum of one, 45, said: “When I pick up gentlemen of a certain age I do get recognised quite a bit, but I don’t mind – I think it’s funny.”
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Dee Ivens
Dee lives with comedian husband Terry Alderton and their son in Essex. Dee, 51, was on Page 3 in the early 90s and now runs menopause health firm Fifdee.
She said: “After leaving modelling I got really into fitness.”