Champion charity fundraisers the Calendar Girls helped a Bradford-based hotel group celebrate five years of success and were recognised with an award for their record-breaking support for Leukemia research.

The Tomahawk Hotel Group held a ball at one of its venues, the Great Victoria hotel in Bradford, which raised £3,000 for Leukaemia Research.

Tomahawk Hotels has lavished more than £5m on the Great Victoria in Bridge Street since buying it in 2005.

Last year around £1m was spent on converting a disused top floor into penthouse rooms, and the former railway hotel was a finalist in this year’s White Rose tourism awards.

Tomahawk also operates the Woodlands hotel near Leeds and Aston Hall on the outskirts of Sheffield The Purple Ball also saw the launch of the Tomahawk awards which are to become an annual event.

Entrepreneur and Bingley Councillor John Pennington was awarded for his contribution to Business in Bradford, Alexis Jenner was recognised for her charity work for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and the Calendar Girls were given an award for their contribution to charity.

Hotel general manager Simon Grybas said: “The ball was a great opportunity for us to show off the skills and talents of our team and raise money for a good cause at the same time. This is definitely going to become an annual event for Tomahawk Hotels.”