Great Taste Award 2024 for Y01 Coffee Co Bills Blend

York-based coffee business, YO1 Coffee Co launched Bill’s Blend last year and it’s now won a Great Taste Award 2024.

Named after Bill Gornall, who lives in Holgate, the special roast was created by Jon Mooney who runs the business and is Sid, Bill’s dad’s former work colleague as well as a family friend.

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Jon said: “The award was extra special as we found out about it on Bill’s 13th birthday, so the timing was uncanny.

“It just goes to show that if you fight for something you really want it can be achieved.”

Jon Mooney with the Great Taste Awrd for Bill’s Blend (Image: Supplied) Previously Bill has dropped in at YO1 Coffee Co to have a go at making the coffee which takes his name, and to open a new training room at the business at the York Auction Centre in Murton.

As The Press has previously reported, Bill, who goes to Manor CE School, was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease MELAS in 2020, a rare disorder that begins in childhood and mostly affects the nervous system and muscles.

It is a degenerative condition affecting the mitochondria in your cells which provide 90 per cent of the energy for them to perform properly. If the mitochondria are unable to produce energy for the cell it dies and the organ the cell is supporting can fail.

Soon after diagnosis they were forwarded the details of The Lily Foundation, the UK’s leading mitochondrial disease charity and the largest charitable funder of mitochondrial research in Europe and to date the family and their friends have raised tens of thousands of pounds for the charity.

Sid Gornall, who won a Community Pride Award last year, recently undertook a 20-mile fundraising pub crawl with friends. 

Bill and Sid Gornall (Image: Supplied) The challenge is part of Sid’s year of fundraising which he hopes will raise £50,000 to help in the fight against mitochondrial disease.

And this month he hopes to jet off to the USA to run the Chicago Marathon for an American mitochondrial charity.

To support Sid, visit his JustGiving Page: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/TeamBillforlily

Bill Gornall is in Year 8 at Manor CE (Image: Supplied) Jon said: “From the sale of each bag of Bill’s Blend coffee we sell 100 per cent of the profits is donated to the cause and we have got other York businesses to help, one being Kennedy’s Bar in York where Sid and I worked together back in 2001 and I worked for five years as a manager. We are both friends with Karen Waugh, the owner and she’s agreed to donate 10p from the sale of every cup and to stock Bill’s Blend for sale as well as Dusk in New Street and House of Trembling Madness.”

Bill’s Blend is also available priced £8.50 from YO1coffeeco.com

To follow the family’s story further go to their JustGiving page here and on Instagram @bills_mito_battle 

Olive, Sid and Bill Gornall with Jon Mooney and Bill’s Blend outside Kennedy’s Bar in York (Image: Supplied)