Stories from across Yorkshire to make you smile

Every week in Yorkshire we cover uplifting and feel-good stories about people, places and animals across our region - and we like to shout about them.

This week, we feature a young girl's dream of working the Asda checkout, a 480-mile charity cycle ride, and the legacy Dolly Parton left right here in the region.

A 12-year-old girl has been given the chance to "work" at her favourite supermarket as a birthday treat.

Hope, who is non verbal and has a neurological condition, loves shopping at Asda in Chaucer Road, Sheffield, so the store arranged for her to don a uniform and have a go on the checkouts.

Mum Gemma said Asda was Hope's favourite place and her face lit up whenever she was there, so she asked managers how they could make her daughter's birthday more "Asda-y".

A store spokesperson said: "Even though she couldn't speak, her face said it all... colleagues had tears in their eyes and customers bought her gifts."

Pop star Paul Heaton says he is planning on putting money behind the bar at dozens of pubs to celebrate his 65th birthday.

The singer, who fronted Hull-based bands The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, made a similar gesture in 2022 when he opened £1,000 tabs at 60 pubs.

Heaton's 23rd studio album, Jenius, was released on Friday, and he will set out on a UK arena tour in October.

When asked how he would choose the venues, Heaton told BBC Breakfast: "Some of them I've been in. Some of them I just ask people, 'What is a good pub in Nottingham?' or wherever, and there's money behind the bar until it runs out."

After the news broke that Dolly Parton died, aged 80, after a "brief battle with cancer", her surprising connection with Yorkshire has been revisited.

The much-loved singer set up Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in 1995 to provide free books to millions of children across the world - and in 2007, Rotherham was chosen to be the first European branch.

Deborah Bullivan, who ran the Imagination Library in the South Yorkshire town praised the "incredible" country music icon for her work to inspire children to read.

In Wakefield, the scheme has delivered more than 66,000 books to nearly 2,500 children across the city's most disadvantaged areas since 2017, according to Wakefield Council.

Ansar Hayat, cabinet member for adults and health, said the 9 to 5 singer had "touched the lives of millions of people around the world through her music and work promoting reading with young people through the Imagination Library".

A group of golf-loving retirees are taking on their toughest challenge yet, cycling from London to Bordeaux, to raise funds for Yorkshire's Brain Tumour Charity.

The six men, all in their 60s and from Harrogate, hope to raise at least £35,000 for the organisation after a friend's wife was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

According to Simon Grafton, who came up with the idea for the 480-mile (770km) ride, the friends felt compelled to do something to help.

"Prostate [cancer], breast [cancer], we all hear about, but the brain cancer we don't. I think it's important that we bring it to the fore, hopefully raise some awareness and raise much-needed funds."

A man with a rare, life-threatening blood condition has become the first patient in the UK to benefit from a new treatment.

Zehair Ayub, from Bradford, was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in 2011, which can disrupt normal blood circulation and cause fatal bleeding.

The AVM was deep in Zehair's brain and had caused a large aneurysm, which was pressing on his visual nerves, affecting his sight.

After 15 years of unsuccessful treatments, he said he "took a chance" on the therapy, which has "significantly improved" his quality of life.

"Thanks to this treatment, not only has my own life changed, but I know other patients will benefit from it in the future too," he said.

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