Teddies Helping Heal Hearts

Born in Australia, Trauma Teddies have grown, helping to calm injured children the world over – and keeping knitters busy!

- Clare Cassy

New toys come and go, but teddy bears are here to stay. Treasured the world over by boys and girls alike, most children have one at some point, a friend that can comfort them in a way no adult can.

Thirty years ago Richard Hamilton, one-time member of an Australian ambulance crew, witnessed one of his colleagues giving a teddy bear to an injured child. Impressed by the calming effect of such a simple gesture, he related the story to his mother, Vera. Mother and son then asked the Australian Red Cross to equip ambulances with teddy bears for the express purpose of calming a traumatised child.

The Red Cross swung into action and the first Trauma Teddy was born. Norma Elder organised a simple knitting pattern and production began. After careful checking, tens of thousands of trauma teddies are now given out each year in Australia to children left homeless by forest fires, floods or other disasters.

The idea soon spread outside Australia. The British Red Cross leapt into action and now many UK police patrol cars, ambulance and fire-fighting crews are equipped with a stock of trauma teddies.