A YOUNG woman has created her own Cornish style Calendar Girls to raise funds for the surgery she says will save her life.

Jessica Riggs, who lives in Notter, near Saltash, was diagnosed earlier this year with Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome-Filum Disease. The condition – often detected in early childhood - means that the fibrous tissue extending the whole length of the spinal cord is under too much tension, causing descent of part of the brain into the spinal canal, build up of fluid in the spinal cord, crushed vertebra and abnormal curvature of the spine.

Up until the end of last year, Jessica, 32, had been working in her dream job as a marine biologist, carrying out research on board ships as well as working as a polar expedition guide. But Jessica’s symptoms were worsening. Filum Disease is a central nervous system disorder, she explains, and affects everything in the body, causing tremors, loss of mobility and flexibility, numbness, severe headaches and insomnia.

“I was working as a marine mammal specialist, and I’ve felt extremely lucky to pursue this career, but due to the stringent medicals needed to work offshore I am now unable to continue,” she says. “It is sad, but working offshore can be quite lonely, and I believe everything happens for a reason, maybe my life path is changing.”

Jessica has always been extremely active and sadly she has also had to give up her much-loved running. Thankfully, swimming is still possible.

“I love to go cold-water swimming, especially in the sea. It’s so good for mental health. Cold water submersion is amazing for endorphins.”

Jessica says that the surgery she needs to halt the progression of her condition is considered experimental in the UK and is not available under the NHS. After many years where she describes being referred backwards and forwards between neurologists without finding a way ahead, she took the decision to go for treatment in Barcelona, where a specialist team offer the operation she requires. Being believed, and having the diagnosis, in itself “relieved a massive weight” she says. But the surgery at a private clinic comes at a cost of £25,000, a sum that Jessica initially had no idea how she would raise.

“The calendar was my friend’s idea. When I got diagnosed in June, I confided in her. Because I love being naked and skinny dipping, she suggested I do a Calendar Girls sort of shoot. We had a girls’ night and watched the film, and it went from there!”

Some of the 17 local women featured in the calendar are friends and some are friends of friends who came on board with the project.

The experience has been affirming and empowering, says Jessica.

“Some of the girls came up from Redruth and they were basically strangers to me but they were confident and courageous enough to get naked and do the photos. I’ll remember that forever and I am so very grateful.”

While nervous to begin with, Jessica soon relaxed into the outdoor photoshoot, and the result is a unique and tasteful calendar that celebrates a love of life and nature.

Having gone on sale in October, the calendar has now sold more than 200 copies. Together with other donations on a Go Fund Me page it has now raised more than £13,000, putting Jessica half way to the target she needs.

She’s hugely grateful to her main sponsors Wilf Dawes Tryes in Saltash, and the calendars are available here, as well as from fellow sponsors Tartendown Nurseries and Helluva Pasties/Louis Tea Rooms on Kit Hill, .

Having made £500 in just one day alone last week, Jessica says she has been awed by the community that has sprung up around the project and that she is eternally grateful for the support she’s received.

Now, her focus is on the future, and on raising enough by the start of 2025 to go ahead with the surgery, which is booked in for January 16.

“The operation is to cut the filum terminal, releasing the tension. It has been carried out in Spain for 30 plus years,” she explains.

“It won’t treat all the symptoms but it will halt them from progressing, saving my quality of life.”

Jessica is absolutely dog-mad and having previously worked as a dog trainer, she says she may go along this line of work once more.

“I’m grateful to say that dogs will always be part of my life. Nothing is set in stone at the moment but I am looking into pet-sitting,” she says. “I want to say to people, never look back, always look forward. Time is not a given so use it wisely.”

To read more about Jessica’s story, to support her appeal and to buy the calendar online, visit www.gofundme.com/f/specialists-life-saving-spinal-surgery