From Air Force to Bear Force - Meet the Stoke teddy bear travelling the world to raise awareness of children’s mental health
Teddy bear Wing Commander Andrew Bland is the figurehead of brand-new Stoke charity Bear Force, which aims to encourage children and young adults to speak about their worries.
Bear Force looks to create safe spaces and environments where children and young adults can talk about their emotions.
They gained official charity status on 6 March, but founder Richard Bland began his journey ten years ago when his son, Drew, tragically died by suicide.
Prior to the loss of Drew in 2013, Richard, a volunteer photographer for the RAF, would take photographs of the now famous teddy bear sitting in planes for inclusion in fundraising calendars for RAF charities.
The bear became so well known that in 2013 Prince William, who was serving as an RAF Air Ambulance helicopter pilot at the time, took the bear flying, and it was also invited to join the Red Arrows during a Buckingham Palace flypast in front of Queen Elizabeth II.
Soon the little toy was awarded his very own flight logbook by the RAF in which his many flight miles were recorded.
Richard told Stoke Nub News: "When Andrew died we fell apart and the only people we could find to talk to was the Dove Service in Hanley, so we went to see them and spoke to them for months.
"I wanted to donate the bear, his logbook and all the photographs of his travels to The Dove Service but then we came up with the idea of writing a children's book all about his adventures.
"All this time we still live each day with the grief of losing a son to suicide and now it seems so natural to turn our WCB into a real character and rename him Wing Commander Andrew Bland.
"The aim was to get the bear flown as often as we could in as many different aircraft types as we could, all over the world."
The first edition of Richard's book, 'AB gains his wings' was published in September 2019.
"My plan was to sell thousands of copies to donate money to The Dove Service" continued Richard, "but only a few hundred sold in the end".
The new edition, now titled 'Bear Force', was re-written with the support of professional child psychotherapists and encourages children to express their feelings through the eyes of the bear who is bought from a toy warehouse and is fearful about who will own him.
The book has been praised as a tool to facilitate engagement with children on a deeper level by caregivers.
Currently, WC Andrew Bland is on a 3000-mile boat race across the Atlantic with Bernie Hollywood OBE, all to raise awareness of children and young adults mental health.
Richard said: "We've just exploded in the past 18 months and there is some seriously exciting news to come!"
To find out more about Bear Force, visit their website.
READ MORE: New College Road bus gate set to come into force next week
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