Newsquest's parent company, Gannett, have awarded £128,000 to its companies across its eight regions in the UK to be distributed towards charities in this area. 

If you are involved with a charity or would like to show your support for one that is close to your heart you can nominate them to win a share of the money. 

Ten charities will be chosen in Cumbria by our Regional Group Editor, Vanessa Sims, once all nominations have been received. 

Last year, in 2021, it was Jigsaw Children's Hospice in Eden and Cumbria Wildlife Trust who received the Cumbrian share of the Gannett donation. 

READ MORE: News & Star owner Gannett to give away £128,000 to UK charities

Here at Newsquest, we caught up with Jigsaw to find out what exactly they'd been doing with the money and how it felt to have been financially supported with their work. 

Jonny Irving of Jigsaw Children's Hospice and Eden Valley Hospice explained that the money was used generally to support the work that Jigsaw does. 

He said: "We were delighted to receive the funding from the Gannett Foundation with the money being used to help continue to care for and support the children and young people from across Cumbria who attend Jigsaw, as well as their families.

"We need to raise £2,126.46 to pay for all of Jigsaw's care services for one whole day, so the £1,829.45 we received from the foundation - thanks to the votes of Cumbrian readers - has helped cover the majority of a full day at Jigsaw.

"In any one day in Jigsaw, it could be the day a child comes to Jigsaw for the first time, when they see their brightly decorated bedroom for the first time, experience the amazing multi-sensory room or go outside in our wheelchair-accessible garden.

"The support Jigsaw offers during a day is also extended to the wider family with advice and guidance from our expert medical and family support teams."

Healthcare Assistant Christine Allan with Staff Nurse Rachel Cuthbert

Jigsaw explain that they provide care and activities for children living with terminal illnesses. 

Many of the children stay at the hospice and they explain on their website that this creates a 'home from home' setting for the young people. 

The charity says that they also work closely alongside the children's parents and guardians to provide a normal day to day routine, treating them specially and like an individual. 

READ MORE: Penrith woman to raise money for Carlisle's Jigsaw Hospice in memory of her baby son

If you would like to see a charity that you care about receive a similar donation, then you can follow these steps. 

Simply log-on to www.newsandstar.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in your nomination form or you can write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, DT4 9XD by the closing date of Sunday 11th September 2022. 

We’re then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into your hands – for four weeks, readers will be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted. Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50% of all to tokens collected, it will receive 50% of the £16,000. 

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process; please visit http://www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules. Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party; our general privacy notice is at: http://www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy. This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region.