A brave north-east boy who endured years of operations in hospital has been re-united with his long-lost teddy bear thanks to a charity always on a mission to help poorly kids.
The ARCHIE Foundation, the official charity of the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (RACH), take on numerous roles to help patients and their families – from providing free accommodation and fundraising for advanced medical equipment, to making sure a child’s hospital stay is as comfortable and stress-free as possible.
But after a member of ARCHIE’s play team found a lost teddy bear in a ward last year, the charity took on a whole new role – international cuddly toy investigators.
After an extensive three-month online search that was shared by tens of thousands of people across the world, ARCHIE eventually tracked down the bear’s owner – who by remarkable coincidence also happens to be called Archie.
Little Archie Braidwood was distraught after he lost his beloved childhood companion, Boots, five years ago.
But after years of searching, the 10-year-old from Stonehaven has finally been reunited with who he believes is his furry friend.
His mother, Sheena, said: “Archie was given a bear when he was a baby, and he went everywhere with it.
“I’ve got photos of him in America with the bear, doing sponsored walks with the bear. But one night he left him in B&Q in Aberdeen just before Christmas.
“It was cold and it was snowing, but his dad went back out to look for Boots anyway. He couldn’t find him.
“He had to tell Archie that another child must have found the bear, and was loving him and looking after him.
“Archie’s had several operations at the children’s hospital itself, and I follow what the ARCHIE Foundation does online because of all the work it does for the kids at the hospital.”
Archie said he was overcome with emotion when he first heard the news.
He said that even if the bear is not his original, he will look after like it is.
“Mum came up to me and told me that she thought she had found him, and I looked at the picture and we all started crying,” he said.
“He’s just like the one I had when I was little – I took him everywhere, even to Houston.
“When I found out it made me feel so relieved and happy, because even if it’s not him, it’ll be fine because I’ll be doing the same for him that another child must have done for mine.”
Mrs Braidwood added: “We know that this might not be his Boots, but he would love to look after it and re-home it in the same way that someone looked after and re-homed his bear.
“He’s adopted this bear like someone adopted his, because they’re exactly the same.”
David Cunningham, ARCHIE’s chief executive, said he was delighted to hear that his team had managed to track down the owner.
“We have to first thank the play team at the RACH for rescuing the bear and bringing him to us,” he said.
“We don’t know where he has been all these years but our appeal, supported on the Press and Journal’s Facebook page, reached tens of thousands of people across the globe.
“We even had contact from people in America and Australia offering to re-home him.
“Given that his owner is called Archie, maybe the bear found us rather than the other way around.”