Grin and bear it: the toys helping many in tough times
MUM’S CREATION A HIT WITH CELEBRITIES, TOO
UNABLE to sleep, Jo Proud started to doodle. Sitting at the kitchen table at 2am, she sketched out a bear.
“The bear made me smile,” she said. “I had teddy bears as a child and I have always loved them. There is something fluffy and comforting about them.
“I was suffering a bit with my mental health and that is why I couldn’t sleep. When I looked at the bear I felt happy and contented.”
Jo, of Markfield, was so taken by her creation she sent the drawing to a factory and paid to create the bear in a bright yellow colour.
Three weeks later, in May 2019, her happy yellow bear arrived.
“I hugged the bear and felt so good,” she said. “My husband and children loved the bear, my happy bear.
“I thought if everyone loves it so much why not make them and try to sell them?”
Jo created six bears and gave them moods. Yellow is happy, blue is sad, love is red, nervous is green, silly is purple and hope is multi-coloured.
“The yellow bear had to be happy as it is the colour of sunshine and was my first bear which made me so happy,” she said.
“The other colours fit in with different moods really and it’s okay to be in a different mood as no-one can be happy all the time.”
Jo took the plunge and commissioned a firm to make 6,000 Mood Bears for her. They landed on her doorstep in January 2020.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
But, despite that, her collection of bears has been providing happiness to many and sales have soared.
“Both children and adults like them because they can be cuddled and they feel soft and comforting,” she said.
“That is something to be treasured in worrying times like now.”
Jo has sold 36,000 Mood Bears and has placed another order for 24,000 more.
“The response to the bears has been amazing,” she said.
“At first I donated some bears to hospitals for the child patients but word soon spread and demand was huge.
“There are hospitals all over the country which have ordered my bears and are using them to help the children on the wards.”
The bears also have some famous fans.
Jo said that former TOWIE stars Mario Falcone and Ferne McCann have a set of six bears.
TV celebrity and ex-pop star Peter Andre also has a set of the bears.
“The celebrities love the bears and Peter Andre said his kids absolutely adore them,” said Jo. “It is lovely to know something I created that helped me with my mental health issues is also helping lots and lots of other people feel better.
“It is not just children the bears are helping. I got a message the other day from a woman who had lost her 42-year-old son and had bought a Mood Bear.
“She says the bear has helped her enormously. She says she cuddles it and it gives her great comfort. That gives me great satisfaction.”
Mood Bears welcomes companies to sponsor the bears. The firm’s name is printed on a certificate which is presented with each teddy.
The bears, which come with their own biography, cost £19.99, or a family of Mood Bears is available for £89.99.