Shropshire woman's teddy collection to help Ukrainian children

Sue Kynaston's widow Ray was looking for a home for her collection of bears

A collection of hundreds of teddy bears is set to be given to children in need.

Sue Kynaston, from Leebotwood in Shropshire, collected around 1,000 of the cuddly toys.

After she died, her widower Ray asked former BBC Radio Shropshire journalist Tim Cook to find a new home for the collection with support from the Teddy Trust.

The charity will now be sending some of the bears to children in Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict.

'All shapes and sizes'

Mr Cook said he had met listener Mrs Kynaston when he worked on a story about her collection.

He said she had bears of "all shapes and sizes, mechanical, musical, smartly dressed, some of them smartly dressed in clothes she had knitted for them".

After Mrs Kynaston died, her husband put the bears in the loft, with more valuable items going to a collector.

Mr Kynaston contacted Mr Cook to ask for help in finding homes for the hundreds that remained.

Mr Cook then made contact with the Teddy Trust, which collects teddy bears from around the UK and sends them to children in need.

He said he was able to persuade other people to help him clean, prepare and transport the bears to the charity, including a laundrette which offered to assist free of charge.

Ellie Somme, who founded the charity in Leominster in Herefordshire, said it has sent about 3,000 bears to Ukraine in the last few weeks.

Once they are ready, she said, some of Mrs Kynaston's bears will also be donated to Ukraine, as well as Kurdistan and South Africa.

"Tim's message came through and I thought 'Wow, this is somebody who understands what we do'," she said.