It's Day Two and today we highlight finalists from our Customer Service, Charitable Business, Inspirational Individual, and Young Achiever categories. Well done to everyone that was nominated and we can't wait to announce the winners Friday 2nd July 2021 on our social media platforms.
Customer Service Award
Sponsored by YPO
Pride & Provenance
Pride & Provenance is a local small cafe and wine bar in Halifax situated within period surroundings close to the Piece Hall. Their offer amazing friendly service from a team who are passionate about what they do, they really care. Every team member has a vast personal knowledge of locally sourced produce.
They value their customers ensuring that on every visit they have a great experience, they have a very professional but personal approach and returning customers are treated as welcome friends. Nothing is too much trouble, they obviously enjoy what they do and work well as a team led by the very personable and charismatic owner James. They remember customer’s names and preferences and go the extra mile to make everyone welcome - from families with children, couples or groups of friends they are all made to feel that their business is valued and that they will be excited to return again and again.
Glu Recruit
Glu Recruit is a specialist recruitment agency. Established in 2016, Glu has a reputation for excellence; delivering recruitment solutions with a personalised, tailored approach to its customers. With a focus firmly on high calibre recruitment solutions and customer service, Glu puts its clients and its candidates.
They support organisations in driving down staff turnover and developing the right culture, shown through their 96% retention rate for all placements made. Through continued client retention, affiliated partnerships such as Connect Yorkshire, and the acquisition of Tiro Talent Services, Glu has been able to widen its network pool of potential candidates and clients to help provide the best services.
Over The Moon Scents
Cathryn started Over the Moon Scents a candle melt business from her kitchen. Within a year she then opened her own shop and gave up a full-time job. She works 24/7 just so her customers can have beautiful smelling homes, she goes the extra mile and beyond and nothing is too much trouble.
Cathryn knows her customers really well and will often leave their favourite fragrance for them if she has extra in stock or if she's just wanting to treat her customers. Her customer service thoroughly derives the recognition for this award.
Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill
At Fazenda, every single step of their guests’ journey is as important as the next. Fazenda is renowned for its service and hospitality in the city which is a result of a happy, healthy team. Their food and excellent quality of service are consistently highlighted through social media channels such as TripAdvisor, Facebook and Google reviews which are testament to the impact of their guest care culture.
Given their unique dining style, the meats are inevitably the star of the show. However, Fazenda strives to accommodate every single guest's dietary requirements, including vegan, vegetarian and pescetarian guests. For those guests with allergies, the salad bar is clearly labelled and they also cater for guests who observe a halal diet.
Charitable Business Award
Sponsored by The ICC Group
Caroline Atha School of Dance
Caroline Atha School of dance school has raised thousands of pounds for various charities for many many years!
All the proceeds from their dance show every other year goes to their chosen charity! Charities include Alzheimer's Society, Turner's Syndrome, Children's Heart Surgery Fund and Teenage Cancer Trust. They also give time up to dance at local charity events, this not only helps the charities but helps educate the dancers some of which are still very young on how they can help others. A great community-spirited school!
Homeless Street Angels
Sisters Becky and Shelley Joyce together with their dedicated loyal team of Homeless Street Angels volunteers, some as young as 8 years old take to the streets each week to make a small difference in someone’s life. They provide outreach every Thursday evening offering care and support on the streets of Leeds City Centre by handing out homemade hot and cold food, clean clothes and toiletries.
The Homeless Street Angels team are always appealing for support and their fundraising efforts help rehouse people on the streets by providing fully furnished homes with provisions given from generous donations. The team never stops, they hold numerous charity events, for example, a rucksack appeal which involved the North Leeds community wrapping gifts and toiletries to hand out to the homeless on Christmas Eve. Becky & Shelley too have suffered a personal tragedy when they sadly lost their Sister, so in her memory, they aim to set up a day centre for the homeless called Abi House.
Christina Gabbitas
Christina is always thinking of others. She is a big supporter of the NSPCC who made her an honorary member of their Council for her fundraising efforts and her work within child protection and safeguarding.
She wrote a book that encourages children to speak out about abuse that is endorsed by major charities including the NSPCC and Police & Crime Commissioners, and is being sold in their online shop to help them raise funds and awareness. She has done an amazing job producing a book with purpose. She also runs a national initiative encouraging children of all abilities, as well as setting up a charity separate from her business.
Unmasked Mental Health
Unmasked Mental Health's launched with the sole ambition to clear the stigma attached to Mental Health. They launched the first Peer to Peer App that allows people to talk, in a safe environment, masked or unmasked.
With a small team of 3, Logan, Doug and Robin, know the struggle of dealing with Mental Health, and through their dedication and determination, talk to companies far and wide, advising how mental health should be an important topic in any business and that a happy and healthy workforce is a real important part of any organisation.
Inspirational Individual of the Year
Sponsored by Franks Accountants
Chloe Thomas
Chloe is an 18-year-old girl and has cerebral palsy resulting in her having a severe physical disability. She is wheelchair dependent and can't stand or walk unaided, she is registered partially sighted but despite this, she is an amazing clever, and bright young lady who thinks mainly of others and tries her best to help and support other children and young people. Chloe goes above and beyond to help raise funds for charity, doing collections in her spare time and organising fundraising activities, she gives up weekends to do collections in local supermarkets and does volunteering at her college.
Despite her physical disability, Chloe will have a go at anything but deep down Chloe finds her disability hard to cope with sometimes when she feels different from other young people her age and envies the simple things in life that her able friends can do. Winning or being a finalist in these awards would show Chloe that anything is possible.
Rachel Campey
Although coming from an adverse childhood due to being a young carer and facing relentless bullying, bereavements and mental health issues that ended up in many attempts of taking her own life. Rachel overcame this, she became a mother at the age of 15 and set the goal of getting to university which was viewed as a pipe dream, 8 education systems later and at age 21 Rachel graduated last December.
Through this time, she has overcome abuse and domestic violence, she joined the MindMate Leeds ambassador team and uses her voice to impact lives and make sure changes happen for the future generations so they don't have to go through what she did. From sharing poetry on thoughtful minds to setting up the face of a mental health campaign on Instagram, Rachel dedicates her time to others to improve as many lives as possible with her story.
Rhian Binns
Rhian has suffered from a stammer all her life, despite the challenges she has faced Rhian has always remained positive and tries wherever she can to help others in similar situations. Rhian joined YPO as an apprentice and despite the challenges has risen throughout the organisation to become internal comms manager - a role she had never dare dream she would ever be able to achieve! As she describes life with a stammer she remains positive and nothing really stands in her way, she has undertaken senior meetings across the organisation, meets customers, liaises with unions and colleagues across the business and is never afraid to put herself forward, even knowing that sometimes this can be quite daunting for her.
More recently Rhian had a bad experience in a coffee shop where a member of staff actually laughed at her stammer, Rhian was obviously upset by this but in her own words said 'I've had to deal with this all my life' However she tweeted about the poor experience and her tweet went viral with messages of support so much so that she appeared on Look North and then live on BBC Breakfast. She has amazing spirit and despite worrying about how she might come across on live TV she took the opportunity to use her experience to raise awareness, just highlighting how brave and inspirational she is.
Tim Bilton
Tim Bilton's world came crashing down when he was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. Tim was determined not to let this stand in his way and straight after chemo and radiotherapy at Sheffield’s Weston Park Hospital, Tim, well-known TV chef was back behind his stove. It didn’t occur to Tim to stop working but behind the scenes, his battle with cancer continued. In the summer of 2015, Tim discovered cancer had spread to his saliva glands, and then in February last year Tim started with a niggle in his knee. “I thought it was an old footballing injury and went for some physio and she suggested I should see my consultant.” The cancer had returned and, even more devastatingly, there were signs of it on one of his kidneys.
Tim also decided that unlike the first time his cancer returned this time he would talk openly about the disease and the effects the treatment has on him. “There seems to be a lot out there about women’s cancer but not so much about men’s. We just aren’t very good at talking about our health.” Tim’s blog, on a knife-edge, is an honest look at his treatment and living life with stage four incurable melanoma. An absolute inspiration regardless of everything Tim has been through he is determined to raise awareness to others.
Young Achiever of the Year
Sponsored by Suttle Transport
Bradley Duke
In January 2017, 14-year-old Bradley Duke was on his way to school when the car he was travelling in lost control on a steep hill in icy conditions. Unrestrained, Bradley suffered multiple skull fractures, facial fractures, spinal fractures and a wrist fracture from trying to reconnect his seatbelt. The force of the crash left no one able to call for help. Thankfully, the car they were travelling in automatically notified the Emergency Services, providing precise coordinates of their location. The Air Ambulance medics put Bradley into an induced coma at the scene and he was taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. As there is no onsite Helipad at the hospital, the helicopter landed in Weston Park, and Bradley was rushed across the busy A57 on a stretcher. In total, he spent over a month in hospital, including nine days in a coma, before being released on Valentine’s Day last year. To say thank you to the medics who saved his life, Bradley has taken part in a fundraising drive for a £500,000 helipad at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, where he was airlifted to after the crash.
Daniel Darcy
Daniel is a 2-year-old little boy, who fights a big battle every day, he has a condition called mitochondrial disease, unfortunately, this disease is progressive and there is no cure, Daniel has the biggest most beautiful smile.
Although he has his own battles and his family are trying to raise money for what he needs, they still think of other children and give donations to support other children with the same disease.
Dan Morton
Dan has raised thousands of pounds in aid of Leeds Cares and raises awareness and offers support to children and their families who are suffering from brain-related injuries at Leeds General Infirmary. Aged ten years old, Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour in April 2014.
After an 11 hour surgery, the tumour was successfully removed but a week later results showed that the tumour was a high-grade cancer and Daniel was given a terminal diagnosis. He had another tumour removed in November 2014. After having two years of clear scans, in September 2016, Daniel was told there was another tumour and was to undergo further surgery. This surgery has left him with severe side effects, causing some damage to his nerves and issues with mobility on his right side. Daniel has now taught himself to write and draw, a passion of his, with his left hand. A testament to his resilience, determination and character. Daniel had another two years of clear but in August 2018, he was told that he had another tumour and had surgery for the fourth time. Daniel has undertaken many fundraising activities all whilst still fighting his own battle and living with his daily challenges. He really does deserve some recognition.
Lucas Town
Lucas is a multitalented inspirational young sportsman from Huddersfield. He’s a 13-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsy and takes part in wheelchair tennis, disabled horse riding, wheelchair racing and framed football.
He is excelling in wheelchair tennis and has won 3 medals for the Nottingham Open, Leeds and Grantham competitions! Lucas was a runner up at the British Open. He entered the Yorkshire County Championships in the adult wheelchair competition and came away runner up and officially Yorkshire's number 2 wheelchair tennis player for 2019! An amazing year of achievements.
Lucas is an inspiration to not only his family but to everyone that meets him. He never lets his disability of having cerebral palsy get in the way and is also wanting to inspire other disabled children to take part in any aspect of sports whatever their disability is. Lucas sees everyone as being the same as he sees people, he sees a person first and always treats everyone as he wishes to be treated which in this day and age means a lot.
Winners announced Friday 2nd July 2021 on our social media platforms!
If you have reached our finalist stage congratulations! Fancy attending our 2022 awards to be presented with your certificate by one of our sponsors on our red carpet or receive your winner's award on stage please contact us to book your tickets events@yorkshirechoiceawards.co.uk
We would like to thank everyone for their support during these unprecedented times and we wish you all the very best of luck ahead of our special announcement.
Disclaimer: All information provided for the biographies above were submitted during the nomination process between June 2019 and November 2019. Yorkshire Choice is not responsible for any errors or omissions.