Bramhope newsagents owner honoured for raising over £100,000

The awards celebrate the achievements of inspiring people, organisations and projects throughout the region.

The citation at the awards for Tariq read, "Tariq Qadeer has dedicated the past 16 years to running a small shop in Bramhope, Leeds often working upp to 85 hours per week. "Despite his demanding schedule, Tariq has supported numerous fundraising activites, indluding the Leeds half Marathons, Yorkshire three Peak walks, pub quizzes, Run a Mile for Sports Relief, and the annual Bramhope 10K runs". I am honoured and over the moon to win the above award at the Yorkshire Choice Award 2024 ceremony at Leeds United Banquet Hall at Elland Road. It was an amazing ceremony with sold out crowd of over 700 people from all over Yorkshire. There venue was full of people from all walks of life including lots of charities, entrepreneurs, volunteers and celebrities. The host of the evening was ITV's fromer presenter Christa Ackroyd. Tariq Qadeer who runs the local newsagents in Bramhope was nominated in three categories in the prestigious Yorkshire Choice Awards 2024. These three categories were "Kate Granger Award for Outstanding Contribution 2024" "Inspirational Individual of the Year 2024" and "Local Fundraiser of the Year 2024". Last year he was finalist in "Local Fundraiser of Year Award" but did not win it. He has also won the "Volunteer of the year Award 2018" from Imran Khan Cancer Appeal and "Team of the Year Award 2019" for the amazing Team Bramhope from The Candlelighters Trust. Over the years from his small newsagents in Bramhope, Tariq has helped at least a dozen charities by raising over £130,000 for good causes. He has managed to organise lots of very successful charity events in the village. He said that he started taking part in the Leeds half marathons from 2007 without any experience of long-distance running. It was an eye opener as I was good at short , sharp runs but never thought that half marathon could be so hard. I managed to complete the run in 2.25 hours but damaged my big toes. I bought my shop opposite The Fox in Bramhope in Jan 2008 and realised that other than taking part in Leeds Half, I could do so much more in the village to help some good causes. I did a second hand books sale outside the shop to raise money for Ward 10 in St James hospital. And in 2009, Tariq organised a group of volunteers to take part in the Leeds half marathon under the banner of "Team Bramhope". In the following year, he started Sports Relief "run a mile" event in the village. In 2012, He organised two walks in the village for BBC children in Need Appeal with his son Harris in Pudsey Bear costume borrowed from the BBC office in Leeds. He organised his first pub quiz in November 2012 for BBC children in need Appeal in the Fox and very quickly it became the biggest quiz night of the year. He also started annual "Yorkshire Three Peaks walk" event in summer 2013. He has done the YTP challenge himself 7 times since then and it is one of his favourite events of the year. He also organised a cricket match in the village in 2014 between Asian 11 and England 11 (England 11 was local village cricket team) In the lockdown when we all the sporting/ charity events were stopped, Tariq started organising his own "Bramhope 10K run" and that event has become very popular in the village where more than 50 volunteers took part and lots more supporting / cheering the runners in the village. The charities Tariq has helped so far are, The Candlelighters Trust (a small children cancer charity for Yorkshire). Tariq and all of the most amazing volunteers and their supporters and all the village community have managed to raise £67,000 for the Candlelighters Trust alone. Tariq came to know about this wonderful charity when his little one year old nephew was in St James hospital with a rare blood disease. With lots and lots of prayers and months of treatment, he recovered fully and now he is a young , healthy teenager. The other charities that he has supported are, BBC Children in Need appeal, Imran Khan Cancer Appeal, Sports Relief, Dementia UK, Prostate Cancer UK, Heart Research UK, Bloodwise UK, Sue Ryder, Poppy Appeal, Marie Curie, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, Syria Appeal, DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee) Pakistan flood appeal, DEC Türkiye earthquake appeal, DEC East Africa Famine appeal, Gaza disaster appeal, Paper boys/ girls Xmas appeals, St James hospital ward 10 appeal etc. He said that it is very important for me as it not only gives me a huge pleasure / satisfaction but it also helps the local community to get together, meet each other, make new friends, find out a bit about the charities, take part in an healthy event for both body and mind and also help me raise a decent amount of money for these good causes. I myself have taken part in 8 Leeds half marathons and 7 Yorkshire Three peaks walks and I have absolutely loved the feelings and atmosphere. I have also seen how wonderful work most of these charities are doing in the UK and decided to use my shop as a base for organising teams/ events. It has been very hard as I work long hours but I have loved every minute of these events over the last few years. I have also seen two of my very close family members die of cancer in Pakistan in the 90's and witnessed how little knowledge/ medical facilities the country had in terms of cancer treatment in Pakistan. This is why I do a bit of fund raising for Imran Khan Cancer Appeal and have managed to raise just over £16,000 for them so far. This charity was started by the legendary cricketer, former vice chancellor of Bradford university and former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan in memory of his late mother Shoukat Khanum who died of cancer when he was a young man. This amazing charity is building their 3rd cancer hospital in Pakistan where more than 60% of patients who cannot afford the treatment are treated free. Over the last 15 years since I started the fundraising, I have had lots of support and encouragement from my family and from the people of Bramhope. Lots of volunteers have been doing the YTP walk, the runs and quiz nights every year and that has also led to some of them doing their own fundraising for The Candlelighters Trust and numerous other charities.