My name is Melanie Smith and I am the founder of Angelbear, a former nurse and mum.
What began as a desire to see a more holistic approach to helping children in upsetting and distressing situations has evolved into my life's work and proudest achievement.
Aside from the now proven benefits of giving children of all ages an Angelbear that has been hand-made by such kind people to children in critical situations or who are facing adversity, I have a strong desire to dispel the myth that only young children benefit from our bears, as we have had huge success with adolescents (yes, even boys!)
Angelbear has naturally evolved into not only supplying refuges, hospices, orphanages, children's homes etc with bears but we have a growing demand from all frontline services including the police, hospitals, fire service and even coast guards all over the world!
We receive no funding as we never discriminate on age, gender, religious affiliation or geographical location. Therefore we are proud to run solely on sponsorship from Kemp Packaging, Louth UK and donations.
The Angelbear ethos is simple- everyone needs a hug sometimes and children respond beautifully to bears. As long as children smile when they are given an Angelbear, we will work tirelessly to provide thousands every year.
Angelbear is not defined by myself, Marie, our trustees or our patron. Angelbear is a culmination of every single person who contributes by knitting/ crocheting bears. Without you all, Angelbear would not be reaching thousands of children worldwide. I am very proud of Angelbear- but even more proud of you!
My name is Marie Williamson. I am a journalist by trade and mum of three children. I first came across Angelbear while working as News Editor of a series of four local newspapers.
Melanie sent me an email in February 2010 asking I would consider running a story about the new organisation she had set up. I ran the initial article but kept in touch with Melanie and ran a second article a few weeks later when she started a weekly knitting group. Around this time I decided to have a go at knitting a bear myself.
Like many people I had not knitted since I was a child when my grandmother taught me, so although I knew the basics, I did have to look at Melanie's YouTube tutorials to jog my memory. Soon I was knitting a bear every evening and started going to Melanie's knitting group to hand the bears over but also to find out more about Angelbear.
The more I knitted and the more time I spent with Melanie, the more I realised I wanted to be part of this cause. I feel passionately about children and wanted to get involved to be able to help some of the millions of children around the world who just need a hug.
I have been a full time member of Angelbear for over a year now and am proud of the work that myself, Melanie, our patron Greg Page and all our volunteer knitters do day in, day out for the children who benefit from Angelbears.
In the past six months Angelbear has grown beyond what we thought possible and I am looking forward to the next six months and beyond, particularly sending out our 10,000th bear, registering as a charity and helping gain sponsorship and awareness of Angelbear across the globe.
Angelbear and knitting are now such a part of my life that I cannot imagine doing anything else. There is nothing better at the end of a long day than relaxing with a cup of tea and my knitting, waiting for the next Angelbear to be 'born'.
