FIRST PERSON: Hairdresser Jan Bourne talks about her fundraising ‘dream team’ and their sell-out calendar

“I was born at Lydia Beynon maternity hospital in Newport and grew up in Llanfach, Abercarn.

My mam worked in Knights DIY which is just across the road from my salon on the High Street. She knew the milkman so I would go around collecting milk money with him from the age of ten. I went to work on the bread round and at sixteen.

When I was working in the bake house they wanted me to take on the bakery but I wanted to be a nursery nurse so I said no.

Mary, who previously owned my salon Hairlines, decided she needed an apprentice. Mam didn’t hold out much hope for me in school so she asked me if I was interested and then told Mary I fancied the job. I started working at Mary’s during Easter but because I didn’t finish school until the summer my mam had to ring the school to tell them and I’ve been here ever since.

I love working in the salon and would not want to be anywhere else. I remember my first day. I wore a brown overall and one of my first customers asked me how long I had been working there and I said ‘a day’. I would go on day release to College in Crosskeys on a Monday. Mary treated me as the daughter she never had and was a second mam to me. I have been taking money off some of my customers since I was 12.

I met my husband Michael in a pub when I was 18. We got married in St Luke’s Church two years later and have children Aimee, 25 and Lewis,27.

Mary retired when I was about 24 so I took over the salon. Our roles reversed and she worked part-time for me. It was an easy transition. Michael and I went on a holiday and my dad decided to change the name of the salon to Jan’s as a surprise.

About 20 years ago I decided we needed new windows and a name so we chose ‘Hairlines’. I love hairdressing. I am a people person so this is my ideal job.

Hairdressing has changed over the years. It’s not so much about weekly appointments for sets but colours and trims have taken over.

Years ago everyone would have a shampoo and set but now customers want blow-dry’s.

When my children were small I would hold coffee mornings in the Scout Hut. The best one we held was for a GP in Risca who was raising funds for a sensory room for his autistic son and it raised £1,000.

A few years later my friend Jan and I started organising street parties. We held one to mark VJ Day on the street we used to live on in Cwmcarn. Everyone enjoyed it so much they asked for a Christmas party and it snowballed from there. We started running street trips and then days out which we still run.

Four years ago my friend died at 50 from breast cancer and the following year my brother-in-law died from cancer. I decided that I would raise funds for Cancer Research UK. The first event was a memory night which raised £1,500.

It went so well that my friends asked me what we would do next. We decided to do something different and completed a charity walk up and down several mountains around Abercarn. It was hellish but we raised £2,000.

I call my friends my ‘dream team’ because they are as good as gold and whatever I ask them to do they do. We’ve tried to raise around £1,000 each year since. Our next event was a black tie night at Abercarn Rugby Club followed by a ‘Tramps March’ where we dressed as tramps and carried collection buckets with us and walked from Risca to Abercarn.

We held a barn dance at the rugby club and decorated the room with bales of hay and bunting. Earlier this year we held a Mad Hatter’s tea party to raise funds for inclusion centre in Newbridge where my daughter Aimee works.

We wanted to try something different this year so we had the idea to put together a charity calendar for 2016.

It’s by the far the biggest fundraiser we have done to date.

My friends and I rallied 12 women together but as I was telling people about it the numbers grew to 32 women ranging from 18 to 70. Quite a few of them had known my late-friend Jane and almost everyone has been affected by cancer through a friend or relative.

We spent months working on themes for each month and got the ladies to pose with a variety of props, which we stored in the salon, including a washing line and some boxes.

Other themes include a St David’s Day theme for March and Glastonbury for June.

We met in Llanfach Village Hall and Community Centre for the photoshoot one Saturday in April and Peter Ellis, of Ellis Photography kindly took the photo’s for free.

Some of the girls were really brave and went completely nude but others kept their bottoms on. We featured three ladies on each month and I appeared in May. We thought it would take two days but it was all done in two hours.

It was quite nerve-wracking but it went really well.

We got local businesses to sponsor each month and had them printed by Ebbw Graphics.

We have been overwhelmed by its success. We launched the calendar at a party in September with 800 copies to sell at £7 each. By the end of the first week we had made £1,000. I had to ask the printers for more. I can’t believe that so far 1,200 copies have raised £8,000 for Cancer Research UK. I never thought in a month of Sunday’s that we would raise this much and raise awareness at the same time. I am so proud of everyone who volunteered to do it and gave up their time.

The response has been fantastic and I’ve been approached by men who offered to feature in a calendar if we do another one. We have a lot of fun whilst raising money for charity.

I am already thinking of what we’ll do for next year’s event. Maybe a boxing evening or a dance-a-thon. I couldn’t have done all this without my girls. If the funds we raise can help in the research then we’ve made a difference.”