YOUR favourite local paper is giving charities the chance to take a share of a whopping £125,000 cash giveaway.

Our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £125,000 in cash to support charities across the country and we are delighted to have a £20k share to give away in our area.

And we asked YOU to decide where this money should be spent. You nominated in your thousands and our editorial team chose a shortlist of eight charities from these nominations that will share in the £20,000.

The eight charities nominated across the North West are:

Bury Cancer Support Centre aims to offer support to anyone whose life is touched by cancer.

The Halliwell Befriending Service in Bolton provides a visiting and support service and arranges activities including luncheons and craft groups.

Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood, Darwen, preserves and carries out maintenance of the wood for the benefit of the local and wider communities.

The Joshua Tree in Cheshire works to support and improve the emotional well-being and mental health of all family members affected by childhood cancer.

Warrington Wolves Charitable Foundation uses the power of sport to empower its community.

The Hope Centre in St Helens, whose mission is to bring hope to those who need it most and support local people.

Autism Together, Wirral, is one of the biggest charities that supports people with autism and their families.

Dal dy dir, a small charity based in Ceri, Powys, which works with people with disabilities.

Now we are putting the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers – during November, you are 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 to tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £20,000!

Collection points can be located at:

Bury Cancer Support Centre, Bury and Bolton Rd, Bury

WHSmith counter, Haymarket Street, Bury

Tesco customer service desk, Woodfield Retail Park, Peel Way, Bury

Asda customer service desk, Pilsworth Road, Bury

Tesco Express, Tottington, Bury

Tesco Express, Brandlesholme Road, Bury

Asda customer service desk, Spring Street, Bury

Co-op, Market St, Tottington

Marks & Spencer customer service desk, St Johns Square, Bury

News Rack, Princess Parade, Bury

Spencers Tobaccanist, stall 58, Bury Market Hall

Mile Lane Post Office, Mile Lane, Seddons Farm, Bury

The Unsworth Centre, Sunnybank Road, Bury

Robert Peel Hub, Sunnybank Rd, Bury

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. The 8 charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers. The value of the grant awarded to each of the 8 charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote. Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies. The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer. Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant. The top 8 charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entry into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity. The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.