Team Bramhope celebrate 10 years supporting Candlelighters!

Team Bramhope was formed by Tariq Qadeer, the owner of the Village Newsagents in Bramhope, by encouraging his customers and friends in the village to come together for charity.

As their enthusiasm and passion grew, the word spread and so did the team. In 2018 one of their members Andy Taylor decided to add a ‘White Rose Way Wander’ to their achievements too, taking part in the 104 mile walk over 4 days with friends and colleagues.

Team Bramhope have raised an astonishing amount totalling over £40,000, as well as huge awareness for Candlelighters in North Leeds but more than this, they have brought members of the community together in a positive way.

Team Bramhope were shortlisted amongst the top 3 nominees for the Candlelighters Team Effort of the Year Award in 2018.

Jen Aspinall, Senior Community Fundraiser said: “Tariq and everyone involved in Team Bramhope are such an inspiration. Every year they excel themselves in raising funds for various charitable causes. They have supported Candlelighters for 10 years and over this time they have raised over £40,000 which has enabled us to do enormous amounts to support children and their families across Yorkshire facing childhood cancer”.

This year they are continuing their incredible support by taking on the Leeds Half Marathon on 12th May and their own Team Bramhope Yorkshire Three peaks challenge in August.

This year’s Leeds Half marathon, is the teams 10th anniversary! For the past 9 years there were 3, 4 or 5 people in Team Bramhope from the village. This year they have 9 runners so far and they are looking for that one extra special person to join them to celebrate a team of 10 runners for Team Bramhope on their 10th anniversary Leeds Half Marathon run.

The runners are so far are Andy Hogan, Owen Tonge, Andy Taylor, Alison Alsong, John Andrew Holmes and his Son, Caroline Davis, Niamh O’Donovan and Carmel O’Donavan.

Tariq said “It has been an absolute honor and pleasure to work with and work for this amazing charity over the last 10 years.  Jennifer from the trust has just met my little nephew whose illness was the reason that I came to know about the charity and the work they do.  I have been supporting Imran Khan Cancer Appeal which is the biggest cancer charity in Pakistan and after finding out about the Candlelighters trust, I decided to take up this as my main fund raising charity in UK as well as supporting other charities. I do this fund raising by organizing 4 different events in the village every year.  The Leeds half marathon has been going on for over 10 years now.  The other 3 events I have organising in the village are Comic Relief run a mile in March, The Yorkshire Three peaks walk in August and the pub quiz in November.  I am very grateful and humbled by the generosity, support and trust from the people of Bramhope who have not only been taking part in these events but also donating.  With their help, I have managed to raise over £55,000 for a number of good causes.  This year is going to be most challenging for me as I have set a target of raising £10,000 for good causes including Candlelighters.

The charity is going from strength to strength.  The communication, the help and support from the charity and their very easy going and caring approach has helped the charity to grow very quickly in a very short time.

Here’s their Just Giving Page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/teambramhope1