December 2, 2021 8.00 pm This story is over 27 months old

Man with rare brain condition fundraising with naked calendar

‘Stunning Nordic scenery and semi-naked men in boots’

A man from Iceland who runs a seafood factory in Lincolnshire has created a naked calendar to raise money to help others with the same rare brain condition, which he was diagnosed with last year.

Fridrik Thorsteinsson is the Managing Director at Northcoast Seafoods Ltd in Grimsby. Last year he was diagnosed with a rare brain condition called MSA (Multiple System Atrophy), which causes gradual damage to nerve cells in the brain.

He told BBC Look North that the condition means “I’m getting paralysed slowly” and he came up with idea for a fundraising calendar – The Calendar Boys 2022 – which combines stunning Nordic scenery and semi-naked men in boots.

The calendar will raise money to help others with the same rare brain condition as Fridrik – Multiple System Atrophy. | Photo: BBC Look North

The Calendar Boys 2022 is based on an old photograph taken 40 years ago and is just one means of fundraising for Fridrik.

The calendar will be available online soon and Fridrik hopes it will raise money for others with his condition.

The calendar will be available online soon. | Photo: BBC Look North

The calendar is based an this old photograph taken 40 years ago.

Fridrik said: “We took our clothes off. It made us laugh, and hopefully it will make other people laugh as well.”

Fridrik’s condition also means that he’s losing his voice and, being bilingual, he wants to preserve it digitally in both English and Icelandic. However, he has discovered that Iceland doesn’t have its own version of voice banking.

They had a lot of fun making the calendar. | Photo: BBC Look North

The calendar was the brain child of Fridrik Thorsteinsson, who runs Northcoast Seafoods Ltd in Grimsby. | Photo: BBC Look North

He added: “I managed, just over one year ago, to record my own voice. I have an app on my phone so I can use my own speech.”