'Engagement bears' knitted in Telford to help lonely children

Linda Davis (left) says the bears will be given to children who feel lonely or need help engaging with people

Teddy bears are being knitted by a community group for police officers to give to children who feel lonely or need help engaging with people.

The "engagement bears" were the idea of Linda Davis, a West Mercia Police Community Support Officer.

She took the idea from "trauma teddies" which some forces use to comfort children after road traffic accidents.

"We are going to give them to children that we feel may need a bit of help engaging with people," Ms Davis said.

Carol Campbell, from the Knit and Natters group in Woodside, Telford, said they all wanted to get involved.

"We'll all help one another. We learn and we interact," she said.

An appeal was also made on social media for the bears and, with the group also producing them, Ms Davis said she had to pause the scheme for a while.

"I've had to say to people 'I can't take any more bears at the moment'," she said.

"The station has only got a filing cabinet but now it's full of teddy bears."