Charity hoping to send out 200,000th teddy bear

A woman who sends teddy bears to vulnerable children across the world said she is on course to send her 200,000th bear later this year.

Ellie Somme, from Eardisley, in Herefordshire, founded The Teddy Trust in 2012 and distributes them to 17 countries after collecting them from children in the UK.

She said they work with various organisations to reach the children, and has sent them to countries including Ukraine and Africa. She also sent 45,000 to Syria when the war started in 2014.

Her charity is appealing for donations of bears so they can reach the 200,000 mark.

She said the bears were used by children as comforters, not as toys.

"We send them to children who've been very badly abused, or they've suffered the traumas of war or they are extremely poor. When I say poor, they have no shoes in the winter," she said.

"Most of these children have nothing of their own, particularly in South Africa and in other countries [like] Kurdistan, Mongolia and Malawi."

In 2023, Somme was appointed an MBE for her work helping vulnerable children through her charity, which she operates on a voluntary basis.

She said she was inspired to set it up when a friend showed her photos of some of the children with whom she had worked in South Africa.

Somme said that the charity is asking for donations as they had sent out so many bears this year, but have asked people only donate bears, not any other items.

"People send us boxes load of stuff and we can't use - dolls and rag dolls and all sorts of pillows - and that has to go either to a tip or to other charity shop.

"We just deal with teddy bears and we are running out of them because we've been asked so much."

She added that it would be fantastic if they reached the milestone of the 200,00th bear this year.

"The last count was 180,000 so we're sort of upwards of that now. We have sent thousands this year, so I'm just waiting to hear from one of our trustees, because she does all our shipping, and [I'm] saying 'come on, have we hit the 200,000th' and she said no, not yet, but yeah that would be fantastic."

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