Gordon steps down

PICTURE: Gordon outside our Huntington head office

We’re bidding farewell to Gordon Topping, a long-standing charity board member who’s stepping down.

Gordon and his wife Anne are moving to Cheshire to be closer to family, leaving York, where Gordon has lived since 1964. 

A University of York graduate, Gordon worked for Procter & Gamble before joining his father-in-law’s business, William Ellis the Greengrocer.

He bought the company in 1972. Within a year he repaid the £5,000 loan he took out for the purchase, and expanded the business from a staff of six to a 120-strong workforce across seven shops, meanwhile becoming involved in property development.

Gordon joined York Against Cancer in the early ‘90s after our founder, Professor Steve Leveson, invited him onto our board. He brought commercial expertise, becoming a director of our trading company.

It was Gordon’s idea to run Christmas shops and initially he sourced vacant properties for us.

Professor Leveson said: “Gordon is a really good man to work with and he has been very active on our behalf, coming up with really progressive ideas to carry the charity forward. He’ll be missed.”

Gordon said he was proud of York’s Cancer Care Centre and our mobile chemotherapy unit, which he said were major achievements. “Above all, everything the charity does has been good value for money, directly or indirectly improving the lives of the people of York rather than going on admin,” he said..

He paid tribute to Steve Leveson and his wife. “Steve’s a wonderful example of someone who had an incredibly worthwhile occupation and still gave an enormous amount of spare time to launch this charity. Without him and Pat, who’s also been tremendous, I don’t think it would exist.

“Nobody in the charity does it for themselves. They are in it to give, not to take, and I like that.”