Charity: Encore Personnel; Women in Business; Yorkshire Building Society; York University

STAFF at Leeds-based recruitment firm Encore Personnel have raised more than £20,000 for two chosen charities, the British Heart Foundation and Cruse Bereavement Care.

Chris Hockey, director at Encore, which has nine offices across the UK, said “It’s great to see everyone in all the offices getting on board and doing their bit for charity. We are proud to have raised so much money for two extremely worthwhile causes.”

The Encore team raised the money through a series of different events and challenges, including a dozen staff who raised more than £11,000 by completing the 24 Peak Challenge, conquering 24 peaks in the Lake District within 24 hours.

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A CHEQUE for £760 has been presented to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) by members of the Bridlington and Wolds Women in Business Group after a charity race night.

The group decided to organise the event, which was held at Bridlington Golf Club, to help support the lifesaving work of Bridlington RNLI and to also highlight the group to other women who run their own business and encourage them to join.

Andy Brompton, volunteer press officer at Bridlington RNLI, said: “The group must also be congratulated on all the hard work and effort that they put into arranging the event. Such support from the heart of the community is vital to the RNLI and ensures that our charity can continue saving lives at sea.”

The charity race night was sponsored by East Coast Travel, Educom, Pinkney Grunwells, Bridlington Tourism Association, Lloyd Dowson, Gallery 49, HSBC and Slimming World Christ Church. Billy Swift who provided the race night and was compère for the evening.

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ONE of Bradford’s major employers has installed an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at its headquarters to safeguard staff.

Yorkshire Building Society has purchased the AED – equipment that can shock the heart to restart after a cardiac arrest – from first aid charity St John Ambulance.

The investment forms part of a review of the building society’s health and safety needs and benchmarking against other sites.

Employing 1600 staff at its head office in Bradford, Yorkshire Building Society said it is committed to ensuring its staff have a safe and healthy place to work.

St John Ambulance has trained 35 workplace first aiders for the company to date and all have now been fully trained in how to use the AED.

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A STUDENT from the University of York who survived childhood cancer at age 12 made it to Sweden as part of a Jailbreak event for children’s cancer research charity Kidscan.

The aim of Jailbreak is to travel as far as possible in 30 hours without spending any money. Team ‘The Passengers’ consisted of students Sophia Steinsberg, Scott Wilson, and Elsie Hargate, who managed to reach Stockholm, Sweden, and raised £2,428 of the £12,019 attracted by the event.

Sophia, who is studying for a degree in Theatre and Performance at York, was herself diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare type of childhood bone cancer, when she was 12. Having spent a year in hospital, and following two operations and 10 months of chemotherapy, she was given the all-clear.

She said: “Whilst travelling to Stockholm without spending a penny was both a challenge and a lot of fun, there is a serious message behind the event. The work that Kidscan does is especially important to me having experienced the trauma of childhood cancer myself. We’re delighted to have been able to contribute to the vital work that Kidscan is doing.”