Unexpected Adventure

We came across this lovely news on The Bear Club today...

Teddy bear travels 3,000 miles by car, plane and post to be reunited with little girl

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:18AM BST 06/06/2008

A schoolgirl has been reunited with her lost teddy after a rescue mission which saw the stuffed toy flown, driven and posted 3,000 miles across Europe.
When seven-year-old Jaimee Armstrong left Orange Ted at an airport in Spain she was inconsolable, and her parents Deborah and Daniel vowed to do everything in their power to get it back.

That set off an incredible chain of events in which the bear was taken on a 44-day journey across the continent.

The adventure began when Orange Ted was accidentally left in Girona Airport on April 23 after a family holiday in Spain.

By the time the Armstrongs realised he was missing they were on board the plane on their way back to Britain.

Mrs Armstrong, 45, said: "Jaimee was frantic with worry and myself and Dan quickly we had to get Orange Ted back whatever the cost.

"She was inconsolable, every morning she kept asking when we were going to get her bear back.

"At one point I even had to take her to the doctors because she hadn’t slept for two nights with worry."

The airport authorities refused to send the bear, an irreplaceable 50-year-old family heirloom, anywhere unless it was collected in person, so the Armstrongs sent out an email appealing to the travel agent who had arranged their holiday.

The agent, Kim Hughes from Travel Counsellors, then sent an email to 1,000 of her colleagues around the world and asked for their help in getting Orange Ted back home.

She received hundreds of replies and an itinerary was drawn up. The bear was picked up by a rep and taken on a 16-day driving holiday across Spain and France.

Next he was handed to another rep in Toulouse, France, who passed it on to her parents who were visiting.

They then took the bear on a plane journey back to their home in Bolton, North Yorkshire, and popped him in the post for the final 200 mile (321 km) leg of the journey.

Orange Ted was finally reunited with his owner in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, on Thursday June 5.

Mrs Armstrong said: "It’s only got one eye, quite bald, with just tufts of hair and stitches all over it - a teddy only a child could love.

"Jaimee has been over the moon since he came back and we are delighted the whole ordeal is over.

"One thing is absolutely certain - he is never leaving the country again."