The manwho gave£23m ofhis fortuneto charity

Sarah Freeman

A FORMER Yorkshire miner, who became one of Britain’s richest men, is now a leading philanthropist after donating 23m of his fortune to charity.

Jimi Heselden, whose Leeds company Hesco Bastion manufactures wire cage walls used for everything from flood defences to protection on army bases, has just written his latest 10m cheque to the Leeds Community Foundation, which channels money into disadvantaged areas.

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The donation comes after the 62-year-old set up the personal fund in 2008 with an initial 10m contribution and topped it up with a further 3m the following year.

Mr Heselden’s gift is the largest single donation ever received by any of the 57 foundations across the country, which were set up to help direct money to the most deserving causes, and its combined value makes it one of the most significant private funds in the UK.

Mr Heselden, who grew up in Halton Moor, one of the most deprived suburbs of Leeds, left school at 15 and worked down Temple Newsam and Lofthouse pits, before setting up his own company with a friend.

Originally specialising in sandblasting, he came up with a concertina design for wire cage walls in 1990 and the business grew rapidly.

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He is ranked in the Sunday Times Rich List’s Top 300, and while he has a long history of supporting good causes in his home city, Mr Heselden has previously been reluctant to talk to the media about his charity work.

However, with many charities seeing a downturn in donations as the hang-over from the recession continues to bite, he has been persuaded to go public with his latest donation in the hope of persuading others to do the same.

“There are people out there who are making money and when times are good I honestly believe people have a moral obligation to use their wealth to help others,” said Mr Heselden.

“There are a lot of families out there who are struggling and a lot of youngsters who have grown up without role models and who can’t get jobs.

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“Life turned out pretty well for me, but I still work in the same area where I grew up and every day I see people who for whatever reason are down on their luck.”

The headquarters of Hesco Bastion on the Cross Green Industrial Estate are just a short walk from Mr Heselden’s childhood home.

Much of the money he has donated to the Leeds Community Foundation will go towards helping disadvantaged youngsters, vulnerable elderly people and health improvement projects in south and east Leeds.

He joins a new wave of British philanthropists, including the likes of JK Rowling who recently donated 10m to set up a new multiple sclerosis research centre in Edinburgh.

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Even before Mr Heselden’s most recent donation, 1.7m from his fund had been used to help 81 local projects. A further 4.3m has been given to 14 regional and national projects, many of them linked to the armed forces.

“Much of our work is on army bases, so it’s always made sense that we support related charities,” said Mr Heselden, who has previously bid 1.5m for nine people to fly with the Red Arrows in aid of Help for Heroes.

Last week his company sponsored the armed forces charity concert at Twickenham.

He added: “We often get thank- you letters from troops, saying how one of our walls saved their lives when a bomb went off and this is our way of showing them how much we appreciate what they do.”

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For the Leeds Community Foundation, Mr Heselden’s generosity could not have come at a better time. Like all charitable organisations, it is battling for an ever-decreasing pot of money while applications for grants have soared.

“It’s impossible to put into words how much Jimi’s donations mean not only to us, but to the groups that directly benefit from the money,” said chief executive Sally-Anne Greenfield,

Miner struck gold: Page 6.

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