Our charity partner is, Yorkshire's Brain Tumour Charity.

We are inviting at least 200 Yorkshire business owners to give something back to a Yorkshire charity, and to get involved.

This could be because they themselves have recovered from a brain tumour, or the illness may have affected family, friends, or employees or that they have a Yorkshire connection.

How can I get involved in the YBTC Business Connections Club?

Business owners who want to get involved can complete a direct debit form for £25, or more, per month. Alternatively, companies can give a one-off annual donation of a minimum amount of £300.

In addition to making positive connections in the community, below are some of the benefits:

• Laboratory tours at hospitals to see current research
• Discounts on YBTC event tickets
• Social media coverage
• Backlinks to their website
• Members’ networking events
• Ongoing fundraising tips – fun ideas for staff involvement
  

So what will the donations go towards?

100% of these monthly donations fund counselling or support people who have recently had a diagnosis, and help those living with a tumour or people affected by treatment. For example:

• A lady near the end of her life couldn’t walk her dogs and was afraid she’d lose them. YBTC paid for a dog walker to look after them in her home, feeding and walking them so they could stay with her until the end.
• A young boy with a brain tumour desperately wanted to see a particular football match, so YBTC paid for tickets and transportation (both ways) for the family.
• A mother of four with a brain tumour couldn’t afford a desperately needed new washing machine because the illness prevented her from working. YBTC stepped in and bought her the new machine.

As well as counselling and practical help, YBTC also funds brain tumour research in three hospitals: St James’ in Leeds, Hull University Hospital and Sheffield University Hospital.

If you are a small business owner or an individual reading this and cannot afford to become a Business Connections member but would like to donation a small amount there are  a few ideas you can do this without it hitting the bank balance:

• You can donate, clothes, bric a brack, cd's videos, dads, books, small furnishings etc to our Otley Road, Headingley shop
• Facebook ask you near to your birthday if you'd like to ask for donations from friends - you could set this up for them to come through to YBTC
• If you buy items from Amazon you could do this through Amazon Smile. Amazon Smile is a website operated by Amazon. It features the same products at the same prices as the standard Amazon site. The only difference is, when you shop on Amazon Smile, the Amazon Smile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the cost of all eligible products to your chosen charity.This could be YBTC.

If you are looking for a charity partner, and/or you are based in Yorkshire then maybe YBTC is the right charity for you.