Self-made top businesswoman Tracy Hoodless is giving a small fortune to charities as her recruitment firm celebrates its 25th birthday.

Champion Recruitment in Oxford is donating £250,000 to charities, including the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign.

Mrs Hoodless started Champion Recruitment in the city centre. A quarter of a century later, the agency has a 7,500sq ft office in Cornmarket Street and branch offices in Abingdon, Witney and Banbury.

The mother-of-two is now in charge of 74 staff, who celebrated at Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall on Saturday. The firm, which serves 2,000 organisations across Oxfordshire, has an annual turnover of £25m.

Mrs Hoodless, from Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon, has a personal reason for making the large donation.

Her daughter Sally, now 27, underwent a major heart operation as a baby. As a result, £160,000 is being donated to the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign, with £60,000 paying for cardiac defibrillators and resuscitation trolleys.

Mrs Hoodless said: "My daughter was born with a narrow aorta, and was brought back to life several times before she had a life-saving operation in London when she was just 13 days old.

"We have donated quite a lot of money over the years to charities supporting children with heart problems, but we thought the anniversary would be a good opportunity to make a donation to the new children's hospital, and other charities."

Mrs Hoodless's husband Quentin helps run the business and daughter Sally works for Champion in quality and marketing. Her son William, 29, is a semi-professional rower.

Olympic rowers Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent were guests at the 25th birthday party.

The firm has also donated £30,000 to Helen and Douglas House hospices in East Oxford, £30,000 to the Bobby Moore Fund, which raises funds for bowel cancer research, and the remaining £30,000 to the Steve Redgrave Trust, which helps underprivileged children.