Yorkshire’s business community digs deep as Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire looks forward to busy 2025

Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire has raised more than £300,000 for vital cancer research thanks to the generosity of the Yorkshire business community.

Thanks to £47,000 being raised at the 2024 annual dinner, and a further £19,000 from the inaugural Million Step Challenge, corporate golf day and other events, Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire has enjoyed a record year, raising more than £75,000 this year alone.

This means that since its launch in 2021, Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire has now raised a total of more than £300,000.

And the voluntary group, part of a national fundraising initiative that brings together influential business leaders to fundraise for Cancer Research UK, is already looking forward to a busy 2025.

The first event in the calendar is the annual Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire gala dinner which is taking place once again at The Queens Hotel in Leeds on March 13.

The dinner has quickly established itself as a key date on the Yorkshire events calendar and promises to be another brilliant evening of first rate entertainment and vital fundraising, with all money donated being pledged to Cancer Research UK in the region.

With only a handful of tables left available, businesses are being urged to secure their spot by emailing Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire chair Alexandra Fogal at Alexandra.fogal@uk.ey.com.

This year’s dinner will once again see Professor David Sebag-Montefiore, Professor of Clinical Oncology and Health Research at the University of Leeds, provide fascinating insights to the 300-strong audience about the positive impact the fundraising makes.

Professor Sebag-Montefiore leads a team of experts from the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust at the Leeds Radiation Research Centre of Excellence, which recently received £2.9m from Cancer Research UK to fund its vital work.

This generous donation will be used over the next five years to research radiotherapy techniques which are personalised to the patient and their tumour.

Alexandra Fogal, chair of Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire, said: “2024 has been a been a brilliant year for Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire and we are hugely grateful to everyone who has supported us, including whose who have generously donated and of course to our super sponsors.

“The gala dinner is the first of Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire’s programme of events for 2025, which we are excited to be expanding.

“The Yorkshire board aims to increase awareness across the region’s business community of Cancer Research UK’s vital work, and we look forward to continuing to support the charity.”

Kathryn Leverett, relationship manager at Cancer Research UK, added: “All money raised by Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire supports lifesaving research right here in Yorkshire.

“These vital funds will make a genuinely positive impact and contribute massively towards our ongoing efforts to beat cancer.

“We are thrilled with the amount of money that has been raised and hugely grateful to everyone who has made 2024 such a success.”

Cancer Research UK is the world’s largest cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information. Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire is one of 12 successful boards established across the UK that together have raised close to £2m.

To find out more about Business Beats Cancer Yorkshire and to make a donation visit: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/business-beats-cancer-yorkshire.