From this month, The Press’ parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £128,000 to support local charities across eight regions - and we are delighted to have £16,000 to give away in our local area.

We’re asking readers to nominate their favourite local charities to be considered for a grant - as we want you to decide how the funding should be spent.

Sally Harris has nominated Breast Friends, a charity that offers support and activities to women with breast cancer in York.

Sally said the money would be used "to continue to run the monthly lunch club for members and fund events".

She added: "This small local charity is a lifeline for anyone in the York area who has ever had a diagnosis of breast cancer, it offers peer to peer support and friendship."

Breast Friends was set up eight years ago by two York mums - Zoe Bounds and Rachel Bruce - who realised there was no support group available when they were diagnosed with breast cancer.

So they set one up - and became a charity three years later. Zoe reckons the group has helped more than 130 women over the years.

The support group meets up twice a month - an evening meet up at the Pig and Pastry cafe in Bishopthorpe Road on the fourth Tuesday of the month and at Pear Tree Farm at lunchtime on the third Wednesday of the month.

A fundraising stall for Breast Friends, York

Funds allowing, Breast Friends arranges activities such as Yoga, hula-hooping and even aerial silks - a type of acrobatics.

Zoe said: "It takes a long time for you to trust your body again after having breast cancer and physical activities help us learn to trust our bodies again."

Breast Friends also has a private Facebook group, offering support too. And it provides heart-shaped pillows and drain bags to women to make them more comfortable following surgery.

Zoe said: "The pillow keeps your arm away from your scar when you are sitting or sleeping. The drain bag allows you to carry on with your life. When I left hospital I had to carry my drain in a Tesco bag!"

Find out more at yorkbreastfriends.org

Nominate your favourite local charity

Any person may nominate a charity, including a representative of the charity itself, but they should always give contact details for a representative of the nominated charity and a brief but clear explanation of how the money will be spent - such as a specific project or item of equipment, and how it will benefit the community.

Making a nomination couldn’t be easier – simply log-on to www.thepress.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in your nomination form. Applications must include an explanation of how the money will be spent, how it will benefit the community and how the project will be completed if the grant does not cover the full costs.

Once all nominations have been received, between September 12 and 25 we will select 10 of the most popular local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme.

We’re then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers – for four weeks between October 24 and November 20, 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 per cent of all the tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the funding.

Entries must be registered charities and must not have received a grant from the scheme within the last two years.

Grants will not be awarded for payments such as salaries, professional fees or day-to-day running or maintenance costs or projects that do not bring benefits to local communities.

Grants have been awarded in the past to York charities including Holgate Windmill, which used the money to buy equipment enabling it to produce flour, Citizens Advice York and The Regen Centre, a charity in Riccall which used the funding for its ‘Changing Places’ project - adapting one of its changing rooms at its community centre for people with disabilities.

To nominate your local charity, click here or send us details via the Send Now button below...