Miss Sim claims she has been big all her life and it isn't by choice.

When she was 10, a doctor put her on a diet of only one apple a day for a week. She ended up putting on weight instead.

She stands at 1.68m and weighs 114kg.

She and three of the calendar models we spoke to said they have no health problems.

Miss Sim, who says her boyfriend loves her curves, told us the calendar is part of a campaign to celebrate curves.

As she and her friends had been photographed in bikinis for the online shop before, the natural step forward for her would be to appear in nude shots.

She added: "I was inspired by a line from a romantic movie, the title of which I cannot remember, that the only time you are truly in love is when you can stand naked in front of your partner and not feel ashamed.

"You love yourself only if you accept who you are and love yourself naked."

Also in the pipeline is a fashion show with plus-sized models called The Military Mardi Gras Ball scheduled for Nov 27.

The calendar is now available for pre-order from the online shop and will be ready for collection on the day of the fashion show.

All profits from its sale will go to a Vietnamese teen, who is hospitalised here for leukaemia. His family isn't well-off and sold their property back home to pay for the deposit for the bone marrow transplant.

However, he suffers from the after-effects of the transplant and has been warded in the intensive care unit several times.

The boy's family is saddled with a hospital bill believed to be around $400,000.

Through the calendar, Miss Sim hopes more plus-sized women will step out of the shadows, embrace their size and enjoy life.

It wasn't easy to find plus-sized women game enough to strip though.

Many turned down the invitation because they were shy.

We spoke to three women who took the plunge, and they told us posing nude was a personal milestone.

Added Miss Regine Guo, 30, a marketing executive: "I want to do something great in life so I won't have any regrets. It's something I can show my grandchildren in the future.

"We are curvy too, but just bigger."

She stands at 1.65m and weighs 98kg.

Another model, Ms Lisa Teoh, 36, an administrative assistant who's also a partner in the online shop, admitted with a laugh that there's a porn star in her.

She's 1.65m tall and weighs 90kg.

"I've wanted to pose for nude photos all my life but never had the chance to. I look into the mirror and often wondered what it would be like if I showed my body to other people," she said candidly.

"I have a big stomach but I'm happy with it, although people sometimes think I'm pregnant. I like my buttocks too.

"I was really happy when I took off all my clothes in the photoshoot. It felt very comfortable...the feeling is indescribable."

Her husband agreed to her posing nude only if her face does not appear in the photo.

While their families have been supportive of their endeavour, some of their friends have called them crazy.

One of the models, Miss Clara Su, 24, a nurse, hasn't told her mother what she's done and will do so only when the calendar is out.

Miss Su, who is 1.63m tall and weighs 86kg, added that some of her friends didn't understand why she did it, and chastised her.

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