Record awards total

The 2015 Awards, held in November, raised a net profit of more than £46,000, all of which will go to young people and projects supporting them in the region, being distributed through the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Since the Awards’ inception, a total of more than £1m has been raised.

Foundation Chairman, Peter McCormick OBE, of principal sponsors McCormicks Solicitors of Harrogate, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our sponsors, supporters and guests at a time when many in Yorkshire are still finding the economic conditions challenging and I cannot thank them enough for their continuing commitment to helping young people achieve their full potential.”

The Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation makes grants to a wide variety of initiatives, ranging from sports equipment for promising young athletes to supporting the training of new teachers in Bradford.

The 400 guests at the 2015 Awards saw Personality of the Year go to eight-year-old Bailey Matthews, of Doncaster, who completed his first triathlon despite having cerebral palsy.

And they saw Harrogate schoolgirl, Alicia Donnelly, collect Youngster of the Year for her fight against aplastic anaemia, a rare form of cancer since September 2014.