THE Bolton News and our sister papers are 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 £20,000 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:

* 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.

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

* 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.

Today's token is on p26 of The Bolton News and you can collect more tokens throughout November

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 are located at:

Halliwell Befriending Service reception, St Paul’s Community Hall, Halliwell Road, Halliwell

Sainsbury’s customer service, Trinity Street, Bolton

Morrisons customer service, Black Horse Street, Dawes Street, Bolton

Marks and Spencer customer service, Deansgate, Bolton

Castle Hill Post Office counter, Tonge Moor Road, Bolton

Morrisons customer service desk, Lea Gate, Bolton

Newport Street Post Office front counter, Newport Street, Bolton

M & H News till point, The Market Place, Bolton

WHSmith front counter, Victoria Square, Bolton

Morrisons front counter, Brownlow Way, Brownlow Fold, Bolton

Costcutter front counter, Estrick Street, Bolton

Reg& Son Newsagents till point, Adrien Road, Bolton

Carrs Pasties reception, Halliwell Road, Bolton

The Stork Tavern, Halliwell Road, Bolton

A Small Good Thing, Church Road, Bolton

Nisa Local, Bury Road, Breightmet

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process; please visit 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 eight charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers.

The value of the grant awarded to each of the eight 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 eight 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.