M&S and Partners Raise £14,900 for YoungMinds in Leeds 2026

Key Points

• Record Fundraising: M&S colleagues and their property development partners raised £14,900 for the youth mental health charity YoungMinds during a single tournament.
• Tournament Growth: The annual charity football tournament, held at Powerleague Leeds Central, has more than doubled in scale since its inception, expanding from eight teams to nineteen.
• Cumulative Impact: Since launching in 2023, the annual sporting event has generated a combined total of £31,500 across its three-year history.
• Tournament Outcomes: Repair and refurbishment contractors APA Group Services won the 2026 trophy, while asbestos removal firm WestCross Environmental Services secured second place.
• Wider Campaign Success: The tournament concluded this year’s M&S ‘Big Fun-Raiser’ campaign, contributing to the broader M&S and YoungMinds partnership which has raised over £7 million since October 2023.
• Regional Efforts: The Leeds event coincides with other local fundraising initiatives, including an in-store ‘Pudsey to Paris’ exercise bike challenge and a trek across the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

Leeds (The Leeds Times) July 10, 2026 — Marks and Spencer property colleagues and supply-chain partners raised £14,900 for youth mental health charity YoungMinds at a 19-team football tournament at Powerleague Leeds Central, marking the culmination of the retailer’s annual corporate fundraising drive.The tournament, which has now concluded its third consecutive year, brought together corporate staff from the M&S property sector to compete directly against the primary contractors, project managers, and demolition specialists responsible for constructing and modernising M&S retail outlets across the United Kingdom.

Nineteen teams participated in the competitive event at Powerleague Leeds Central, marking a significant operational expansion for the fixture.

According to tournament organizers, the event has now accumulated a historical total of £31,500 since the first kickoff in 2023, with the 2026 tournament setting a single-year fundraising record for the sporting initiative.

Who Were the Main Competitors and Winners in the 2026 Line-Up?

The corporate line-up featured several prominent names from the British construction, civil engineering, and project management sectors.

Competitors included Audas Project Management, the building and construction firm The Wates Group, and demolition specialists BibbEgan.

Following a series of competitive rounds, the repair and refurbishment contractors APA Group Services secured the 2026 tournament trophy. Asbestos removal contractors WestCross Environmental Services finished the competition in second place.

As reported in official company statements, Marc Simpson, Construction and Global Sourcing Office Safety Manager at M&S, expressed his gratitude to the participating organizations, stating:

“The tournament is an amazing opportunity to come together here in Leeds with our brilliant partners to raise money for a fantastic cause – and to get a bit competitive. A massive thank you to everyone who joined in and all those who donated. When we first started three years ago, we had eight teams taking part, so to see that more than double to nineteen is a particularly proud moment.”

How Will YoungMinds Deploy the £14,900 Raised in West Yorkshire?

The funds generated by the corporate tournament are earmarked for immediate distribution to YoungMinds’ frontline support services. This includes the operational funding of the charity’s Parents Helpline and the expansion of its digital resource portfolios.

Data released by the charity highlights the escalating demand for these services: nearly 14,000 parents and carers contacted the helpline for direct interventions last year.

Reviewing the helpline analytics, caseworkers identified that anxiety, acute difficulties within educational environments, and externalized anger or aggression were the primary behavioral and mental health challenges reported by young people seeking assistance.

Kiran Ramchandani, Interim Director of Policy and Communications at YoungMinds, emphasized the institutional value of the corporate donation, stating:

“A huge thank you to everyone who took part. Their fundraising efforts will help support our work including our parents helpline, so we can be there for parents and carers and the young people in their lives, at a time when more young people than ever are struggling with their mental health.”

What Other Leeds-Based Fundraising Activities Accompanied the Tournament?

The Powerleague tournament serves as the concluding event for this year’s broader M&S ‘Big Fun-Raiser’ campaign, reinforcing a regional surge in charitable activity across West Yorkshire. Retail staff at various regional locations launched concurrent physical challenges to bolster the corporate total.

At the M&S Pudsey store, employees completed a ‘Pudsey to Paris’ static cycling challenge, logging 470 miles on an in-store exercise bike in front of customers.

Concurrently, separate teams of M&S personnel completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge—a demanding 24-mile trek scaling Pen-y-ghent, Whernside, and Ingleborough within a traditional 12-hour target window.

These localized efforts form part of the macro-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnership between the national retailer and the youth mental health charity.

Since the formalization of their alignment in October 2023, M&S has raised an aggregate total exceeding £7 million to sustain YoungMinds’ national intervention programs.

Background of the M&S and YoungMinds Corporate Partnership

The partnership between Marks and Spencer and YoungMinds was initiated in October 2023 against a backdrop of deteriorating youth mental health indicators across the United Kingdom following pandemic-era disruptions and ongoing economic pressures.

The collaboration was designed as a multi-year corporate social responsibility initiative combining store-level fundraising, commercial product activations, and supply-chain engagement to systematically fund early-intervention mental health support.

Prior to the launch of the partnership, national health metrics indicated a sharp rise in referrals to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), creating historic backlogs within the National Health Service (NHS).

By positioning corporate fundraising toward non-profit helpline services and digital resources, the M&S-YoungMinds framework aimed to alleviate pressure on state infrastructure by providing parents and young people with immediate, non-clinical triage support.

The Leeds football tournament, initiated in 2023 as an 8-team pilot project within the M&S property and construction division, highlights how corporate supply chains are leveraged to augment traditional retail point-of-sale donations.

By integrating external contractors, engineers, and project managers into the internal CSR calendar, the initiative has transitioned from a localized staff event into an industry-supported regional fundraiser.

Predictions: How This Development Can Affect Young People and Their Support Networks

The successful conclusion of the Leeds tournament and the broader ‘Big Fun-Raiser’ campaign will directly affect young people experiencing mental health difficulties, alongside their parents, carers, and local support networks throughout the United Kingdom.

The influx of targeted funding toward the YoungMinds Parents Helpline will allow the organization to sustain or expand its volunteer and professional staffing levels.

For the specific audience of parents and carers dealing with escalating behavioral challenges at home, this translates directly into reduced call-waiting times and increased access to targeted crisis-diversion advice before issues require formal clinical intervention.

As corporate partnerships of this scale cross financial milestones, the capital allows for the creation of localized, digital-first toolkits tailored to contemporary stressors, such as school phobia, social anxiety, and academic pressure.

This will likely give educators and community leaders better materials to support young people within their immediate environments, lowering the statistical probability of school exclusions linked to untreated anxiety or behavioral outbursts.

Increased Visibility and Reduction of Stigma in Corporate Environments

The growth of the tournament from eight to nineteen commercial partners indicates that youth mental health advocacy is becoming deeply embedded within traditionally male-dominated sectors, such as construction, demolition, and engineering.

This structural shift suggests that the workforce within these supply chains may experience increased internal awareness of mental health issues, potentially leading to improved support structures for young apprentices and family units supported by employees within the UK building trade.