Spring 2020 is a time that many of us, who are old enough to remember it, will never forget. COVID 19 saw the world come to almost a complete stop, and we saw real heros put themselves at risk every day in the NHS fighting to get people through a virus that, at the time, we knew nothing about.
After spending the past few years making blankets, someone sent me this pattern to try and after successfully making my first I decided I would do what I could to help our Frontline NHS staff working in the local Intensive Care Unit
I posted on social media that I was planning on selling these to raise some money for the staff and within 2 hours had 30 potential orders. This started on the 4th April 2020
Fast forward to 6th August 2020. The final stitch was made in the final bear. 4 months and 72 bears later, I had raised £360 for the staff at the local Intensive Care Unit, a figure I topped up to £400 and it was very happy day when I handed the money over to them so they could get themselves nice things to help them feel a bit better in their really tough shifts at work.
I later made another 3 bears, one for a friend whose bear had been destroyed in a messy breakup, one for myself and then a late order for a friend who missed the window to order the previous year
Each bear takes me roughly 9 hours to make. So that is 675 hours (or just over 28 days) spent making bears.
We're out the other side of the pandemic now, and while COVID 19 may not be gone, neither are the memories of that time. While those memories may fade, I hope these bears will serve as a reminder for people in years to come of the time where the world stopped and where real heros wore scrubs and not capes
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