More Than Business: Why We're Supporting the Charlie Dallas Lancaster Foundation
At Inspire Audio Visual, most of our working days revolve around technology. We're designing smart homes, installing cinemas, working alongside interior designers and helping people get the best from their homes.
But every so often, something comes along that feels a little more important than the day job.
Over the past couple of years, we've become increasingly involved with the Charlie Dallas Lancaster Foundation (CDLF), a Yorkshire charity dedicated to raising awareness of mental health and helping people find the support they need.
What began with helping a friend at a fundraising event has grown into something much bigger, both personally and as a business.
And it's a relationship we're proud to be part of.
Where it all started
Our involvement with CDLF began in early 2025 through a good friend of mine, Mark Karvounis.
Mark and I have trained together for a number of years, and he had previously received support through the foundation. Wanting to give something back, he decided to take on a fairly ridiculous challenge: rowing 41 miles.
Not 41 kilometres. Forty-one miles.
On 31 May 2025, Mark put himself through an extraordinary physical challenge, raising £7,296 for CDLF in the process.
A small group of friends came together to support him, and Inspire helped on the day, including providing some of the audiovisual equipment needed for the event.
It was our first experience of fundraising for the foundation, but it certainly wasn't going to be the last.
What stood out wasn't just the physical achievement. It was seeing a community of friends, businesses and supporters come together around something that genuinely mattered.
And for me, the charity's purpose struck a particularly personal chord.
Why mental health support means so much to me
This is something I've become more comfortable talking about as I've got older.
When I was younger, I struggled with my own mental health. I was fortunate enough to have access to a therapist, and that experience genuinely changed the direction of my life.
It helped me understand myself, challenged the way I looked at things and ultimately played a significant part in shaping the person I am today.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that having that support when I needed it changed my outlook on life.
It's one of the reasons I feel so strongly about what CDLF is trying to achieve.
Getting help shouldn't depend on whether somebody can afford private therapy or how long they're prepared to sit on a waiting list.
When somebody finally finds the courage to say they're struggling, that moment matters.
The sooner they're able to access meaningful support, the better.
CDLF works to raise awareness, connect people with support services and fund organisations and initiatives that make a difference to mental health across Yorkshire.
I know first-hand how valuable that kind of help can be.
And if I can use my time, our business or the people around me to help make that support more accessible, then it's something I want to keep doing.
From one challenge to the next
Following Mark's rowing challenge, I started thinking about what I could do myself.
That eventually became a 500km journey from York to Brighton in 2025, combining cycling and running to raise money for CDLF and Together for Cinema, another charity close to our industry.
It was a considerable step up from helping with somebody else's fundraiser.
And in July 2026, things went a stage further when six of us took on a non-stop 500km relay from Scotland to Thirsk, raising more than £34,000 for CDLF.
Both challenges were part of what has become The Hard Mile, a group of friends using physical challenges to raise money and awareness for causes we believe in.
You can read more about our York to Brighton challenge and the Scotland to Thirsk relay in their own articles.
But fundraising challenges are only one part of how we've been able to help.
Using what we do every day to make a difference
One of the advantages of running a business is having access to skills, equipment and relationships that might be useful outside your normal working environment.
For Inspire, that's often audiovisual technology.
At a recent CDLF event, we supplied large screens to show the foundation's video, helping explain the charity's work and what it's trying to achieve to the people attending.
It might sound like a relatively small contribution, especially compared with the effort that goes into organising these events.
But helping a charity communicate its message effectively is important.
If somebody leaves an event understanding more about CDLF, decides to support the foundation or shares its message with somebody who needs help, then that visibility has value.
Hannah and I have enjoyed being involved in supporting these occasions, and it's encouraged us to think about what else we could contribute.
Which brings us to the next project.
Helping CDLF build a better website
We've recently been appointed to project-manage the redevelopment of the Charlie Dallas Lancaster Foundation website.
It's a slightly different kind of project for Inspire, but one that makes a lot of sense to us.
The original website served an important purpose. It gave the foundation an online presence, somewhere people could learn about the charity and see that it was established and doing meaningful work.
But we believe the website can do considerably more.
It should help people discover CDLF in the first place, clearly explain the support available, make it easier for individuals to find appropriate help and encourage businesses and supporters to get involved.
That's as much about the structure, content and search engine visibility as it is about making the website look good.
Our role is to coordinate the wider project, from design direction and development through to content strategy, SEO and making sure the finished website delivers what the charity actually needs.
The initial design direction has been approved, and we're now working towards implementation.
For me, the goal is straightforward.
If somebody in York or the surrounding area is searching for mental health support, information about the foundation or a way to contribute to its work, the website should make that journey as easy as possible.
A charity can do extraordinary work, but people still need to be able to find it.
More than a logo on a sponsorship board
We're not a huge national company with an enormous charitable budget.
We're a Yorkshire business, with a team of people who care about the places and communities around us.
Sometimes that means supplying equipment for an event. Sometimes it's spending months preparing for a fundraising challenge. And sometimes it's putting our professional experience to work on a website that could help somebody find support.
We don't see those as particularly separate things.
They're simply different ways of contributing.
Our involvement with CDLF started because a friend decided to row 41 miles for a cause that had helped him.
It's since become something I care about deeply, and something Hannah and I hope to continue supporting for years to come.
If you'd like to learn more about the foundation, support its fundraising or understand the work it does, please visit the Charlie Dallas Lancaster Foundation website.
And if you're a local business wondering whether you could help, you probably have more to offer than you think.
Sometimes the most useful thing you can give is simply what you're already good at.