THIS summer I have teamed up with my sponsors Pennine Business Partners in a bid to Hit Cancer for Six.

We have decided they will donate £10 to the Laura Crane Youth Trust charity for every six I hit and catch I take in 2016.

I've had a partnership with Pennine for a couple of years through the club and this column and they approached me asking if I wanted to do something in relation to the Laura Crane Trust.

I was obviously keen to get involved, so that's where the idea came from.

For a lot people, cancer affects them at certain stages in their life, unfortunately.

I lost my dad, Simon, in 2011. For me, with my dad's morales and values and what he was about, particularly in youth cricket, it was the perfect fit.

I was only too happy to be affiliated to a charity looking at youth cancer because I know what he stood for – grassroots sports and bringing on the youngsters.

From me being a little boy, he coached every age-group from under-11s up to under-17s at my home club Bradshaw CC in Halifax. This is the kind of thing that he would have loved to support.

The Laura Crane Trust is a great charity. It's based in Yorkshire, so it's handy for me to pop into. But they're nationwide and do work all across the country.

They provide special days for the kids, they've changed facilities at hospitals, providing sitting rooms, kitchens, areas for parents to sleep, stuff like that.

Anything that they can do to help a young person with cancer, they will try their best to accommodate. It can even be taking them out for a cinema day or providing Christmas and Birthday presents.

Saying all of this, I'm not sure exactly how much we'll raise because I'm not exactly prolific in hitting sixes. I just need to get past ten runs first!

If I can, I might try to be a bit more aggressive against spin bowling this year.

But if I do get out to a poor shot, I suppose it gives me a bit of an excuse. Hopefully I can hit a few in the one-day and Twenty20 stuff particularly.

It was a case of fits and starts for us in our opening County Championship match against Hampshire at Headingley.

We played really well first innings and we probably dominated the first two days of the game.

But to be fair to Hampshire, they battled hard. James Vince and Sean Ervine played exceptionally well for their hundreds.

Day four was a bit of a funny one for us. We probably took our eye off the ball expecting it just to be a draw, which it ended up being.

There could have been an opportunity to force a win maybe if we'd batted a little bit better.

But on the whole, all the lads are hitting the ball nicely. In that respect, I don't think we're too worried. It's just a bit of something to think about going forward.

I was disappointed personally not to get some early runs because it was a really good pitch. But three centurions in an innings, it's good signs.

The lads bowled well as well. Adil Rashid, in particular, bowled beautifully without any rewards. There are definitely some positives there.

It was the first game of the season and hopefully at Warwickshire we'll improve and pick up that momentum.

* To donate to Lees' bid, visit the Pennine Business Partners Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/Pennine-Business-Partners.