Staff at St Margaret’s Hospice Care were delighted to take receipt of 72 small brightly coloured teddy bears as part of the Somerset Freemasons’ ‘Teddies for Loving Care’ (TLC) scheme.
The teddies will be utilised by our Family Support, Bereavement and wider clinical teams which work with children and young adults as they face the heartache of losing a parent or close family member.
We envisage that these bears will bring huge comfort and will be enormously helpful as we support children who are recently bereaved. For some, these bears will become important companions at a funeral, or children can perhaps bring their teddy to therapy and bereavement group sessions where they will act as a positive reminder of their parent, or perhaps a grandparent, therefore helping with the grieving process.”Penny Moorcraft, Family Support Therapist
Running for 20 years, TLC is locally managed by Freemasons who volunteer their time to run the scheme. Since its inception in 2001, over 2.5 million teddies have been distributed to hospitals and now hospices throughout England and Wales.
TLC Scheme Coordinator for Somerset, Roger Penny, hand-delivered this special gift to the hospice in Yeovil after learning how the teddies could be incorporated into the therapeutic work of the teams.
I had the privilege of visiting the hospice and meeting the staff there and was impressed by the standard of facilities and care and was touched to hear about the services they provide. I am delighted that we are able to introduce this scheme to the hospices of Somerset and help the young children at such a difficult time in their lives."Roger
Richard Winter, Somerset Freemasons Executive Member, who joined Mr Penny, added, “Somerset Freemasons help the community in many ways and TLC is just a small example of how we do this. We are pleased to provide these bears and are glad they will be helpful.”
The bears will be utilised across a range of the hospice’s services and will be housed at both hospice hubs in Yeovil and Taunton, before finding new homes with the families that we support across Somerset.
For more information on TLC…