Giant bear helps children talk about mental health

2 days ago

Claudia Robinsonin Darlington

News image — Poppy the post bear provides comfort to primary school children

BBC Three primary school children - two girls and a boy - are wearing blue uniform hoodies and sitting reading a picture book with a beige-furred, human-sized cuddly toy bear in a school library. Beside them is a bookshelf and on the wall behind them is a mural of Winnie the Pooh in a green-grassed forest with trees. — Poppy the post bear provides comfort to primary school children

A postal worker has enlisted the help of a huge cuddly bear to encourage primary school children to talk about their mental health.

Poppy the post bear is the brainchild of Nikki Gaynor, who works for Royal Mail in Darlington, County Durham.

Gaynor said she had been passionate about promoting positive mental health and wellbeing since she lost her best friend to suicide ten years ago.

She says her latest mission is to help children understand that "it's okay not to be okay" and that they should just "talk to somebody" about their feelings.

Poppy has become a travelling ambassador for mental health awareness, visiting fire stations, medical practices and drug recovery centres.

She has ridden around the country in post vans, visited dozens of sorting offices and flown in the cockpit of a Royal Mail aeroplane to Belfast.

Nikki Gaynor A very large cuddly beige-furred bear is wearing a yellow high visibility vest and is sitting on the sign at the Royal Mail's Launceston Delivery Office. Behind it is a wire fence with hedge plants weaving through it. On the fence is a slightly overgrown red and white sign reading: "No access for unauthorised personnel." — Poppy has travelled across the country promoting mental wellbeing

The children at Gurney Pease Academy in Darlington look forward to Poppy coming to visit them and said they could not wait until she was back with them permanently.

Jayden, 11, said she made him happy and if he is "feeling nervous about something I can just talk to Poppy and it makes me feel better".

Amelia, who is 7, said sometimes she just needed to be with Poppy and "have a break" while Charleigh, 11, said the bear helped her have the confidence to talk.

"When we're outside and if we get pushed over or someone talks mean stuff to us, it helps us regulate and calm down," she said.

"She's really special to me."

Nikki Gaynor has her blonde hair tied back and is wearing black-rimmed glasses and smiling. She's holding up a mock passport with a large teddy bear's face on the front. Behind her is a red post van. — Nikki Gaynor has created a passport for Poppy to log her travels

Gaynor said her aim was to "encourage conversation" and she never expected Poppy to become as popular as she has.

"Everybody wants Poppy," she said. "She's off to Scotland later this month."

The 5ft (1.5m) bear was named by the children at the academy and she will return there once she has completed her travels.

Thanks to a tracker tag, they have been able to follow her online.

"It's amazing, when I walk into the school with her and [the children] come running up the corridor shouting Poppy, Poppy," Gaynor said.

"They all love her so much."

Nikki Gaynor Poppy is a large beige-furred teddy bear wearing a high visibility vest and looking at a clipboard while sitting in the cockpit of an aeroplane. — Poppy has flown to Belfast on the Royal Mail plane

Gaynor has previously walked 400 miles (344km) from Darlington to Launceston in Cornwall to raise money for the If U Care Share Foundation and has taken part in the Great North Run.

The academy's deputy principal, Kerry Cooper, said Poppy was "incredibly important" and had helped some children talk about their feelings who had not been able to before.

"I think for the more reluctant ones who take more time to say how they feel, Poppy is there, and they feel confidence and happy to share," she said.