Whitakers Chocolates, based in Skipton, North Yorkshire, has chosen Sir Ian Botham’s ‘Beefy’s Charity Foundation’ as its charitable cause of the year throughout 2016 and 2017.

The Foundation helps to fund specific projects relating to chronic illnesses and other challenges that young people face, including Brain Tumour Research & Support (BTRS), Batten Disease Family Association (BDFA), Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (LLR) and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Whitakers Chocolates will arrange a series of fundraising activities throughout the year, and will be supporting the ‘Ice Pole Ball’ – a charity ball being held in London this June – in aid of JDRF.

William Whitaker, managing director at Whitakers Chocolates, explains: “It is an honour to support Beefy’s Charity Foundation, which raises money for such an extensive range of worthy causes. We look forward to working with Sir Ian Botham and his team, and [hope] to make a difference with the support we provide over the next two years”.

Whitakers Chocolates has already raised £30,000 for Beefy’s Charity Foundation as a result of previous years’ fundraising efforts.