Fairgrounds and fungi: Yorkshire stories to make you smile

Across Yorkshire there are people doing amazing things every day of the week, and we want to highlight them.

This week we marked the arrival of Hull’s annual fair, celebrated fundraising success for a young ice hockey player and found out more about colourful rare mushrooms springing up in the region’s national parks.

Take a look below and enjoy some positive news stories from across BBC Yorkshire.

Gladiator Jodie Ounsley, from Dewsbury, revealed that instead of questions about Giant’s giant muscles or Legend’s equally enormous ego the number one question she gets asked is why despite being born “profoundly deaf” she speaks with a Yorkshire accent.

In a post shared on social media, she said it was all down to years of lip reading, having practised the skill since she was a young girl.

“My family are very northern, from Yorkshire. Their lip pattern is what I was brought up with,” she said.

“Naturally, repetition after repetition, looking at how their mouth position and move as they are talking, visual and facial expressions – I’ve just observed that and learned it – and along the way, I picked up a Yorkshire accent myself.”

Hull’s world famous fair is under way once more at its Walton Street home.

The annual event, which dates back more than 750 years, attracts tens of thousands of people to the city.

Speaking before the fair opened to the public, the showmen behind the event said it was like “nowhere else”.

Some have a connection with the fair stretching back over generations, meaning it is like one huge family reunion.

The fair runs until 18 October.

Well-wishers brought a smile to one young boy’s face this week after helping raise more than £1,000 to replace his stolen para-sledge.

Keen ice hockey player Matthew, 13, lost his sledge when his mum’s car was stolen in Sheffield.

But, within a matter of days a fundraising appeal to replace it had topped £1,500.

Matthew said: “I just want to thank everyone who donated.

“It’s a shock, it’s a target we never thought we’d be able to reach so soon.”

Yorkshire’s national parks are home to some stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife, but this week conservationists revealed they are also home to some of the UK’s rarest mushrooms.

A survey by Plantlife found new sites for pink waxcap and violet coral in cemeteries, gardens and farmland across the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

Clare Blencowe, from the British Mycological Society, said: “These fungi are vital indicators of the health of our grasslands.”

Learn more about the fancy fungi here.