CALENDAR girl Angela Knowles and former Sunderland AFC captain Kevin Ball will speak at a cancer conference.

Mrs Knowles, whose late husband’s battle against cancer inspired her and friends from Rylstone Women’s Institute to pose for the now-famous risqué calendar, and Black Cats legend Mr Ball will appear at the Living With and Beyond Cancer at Ramside Hall Hotel, near Durham, on Friday (November 6).

More than 300 people whose lives have been affected by blood conditions or blood cancers will attend the day-long event.

The first keynote speaker is Professor Graham Jackson, who works in haematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is a professor of clinical haematology at Newcastle University and president of the British Society of Haematology.

Mrs Knowles will talk about her experience of her late husband’s cancer, while Mr Ball will give a motivational speech about his life in football.

Conference organiser Deborah Grimes, a haematology clinical nurse specialist at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are hoping through the event that patients will meet others having similar experiences and find support networks with each other which we know from experience can be very powerful.”