Children's ward kids get a teddy bear boost from the Freemasons

Following a request from The Paediatric Day-care Surgical Unit, Graham Dearing, an assistant head of Freemasonry in Buckinghamshire visited the unit on Friday to deliver 120 bears for the children.

Graham was accompanied by Mel Shah, the Teddies for Loving Care (TLC) programme coordinator for Bucks’ Masons, and Mel’s wife Nilam.

The unit joins several others throughout Buckinghamshire which are in receipt of many teddies every month, all of which help calm the children that receive them and assist the nurses who give them out to help patients gain confidence during treatment.

On hand to receive the delivery were; Gemma Heath, paediatric lead for theatres, Ayesha Khan, healthcare assistant, Kym Natneast, anaesthetic service improvement nurse and Doctor Marc Davison, lead paediatric anaesthetic.

Gemma said that she has seen the effect the bears have on the children attending A&E, and had put in a request for bears for her department.

Started in 2001, Teddies for Loving Care (TLC), is now in its 16th year, and to date, has distributed over 1 million teddy bears to children’s A&E departments across the UK.

To find out more go to www.buckspgl.org