Islanders Knit Bears
A 100–year–old lady is among a group of islanders on the tiny island of Sanday in Orkney that has knitted over 200 teddy bears for patients on board the world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy.
As part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, Lena Alice (15) organised the knitting drive on behalf of Mercy Ships, the international charity that provides free medical and humanitarian care to some of the world poorest people.
An appeal for knitters was placed in the local monthly newspaper, the Sanday Sound, and before long islanders rallied round with donations of wool and offers to knit bears.
100-year-old Susan Davis, known as Dolly, has lived on the island her whole life and has knitted 65 teddy bears for the project. Another keen knitter, Mary Brown (77) made sixty teddy bears and was thrilled that she could use her skills and hobby to help others.
Helping Lena with the project was local resident Rosemary Dempster who had the idea to donate the bears to Mercy Ships.
Rosemary said “When we moved to the island of Sanday, I was overwhelmed with the community spirit and willingness to help others. I would talk to people about Mercy Ships and the work of the volunteers that give up their time to help improve the lives of people suffering at the hands of poverty. When Lena decided to make ‘Teddies for Tragedies’, as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme we thought that donating the teddies to Mercy Ships would fit in perfectly”
Lena said: “When Rosemary told me about the kids on the ship, I thought it was a great idea to donate the bears to them. It was a real challenge and I couldn’t have done it without the help of all the ladies on the island.”
The Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry, is staffed by an international crew of dedicated volunteers from over 50 nations ranging from seamen, engineers, surgeons, doctors and nurses. The teddy bears will be shipped out to the Africa Mercy on its next outreach to Togo where she will be docked for six months having spent the last 10 months helping the people of Benin.
The surgeons on board perform operations on children and adults such as cleft lip and palate, cataract and crossed eye corrections, facial reconstructions, club feet and dental treatments.
Judy Polkinhorn, Executive Director of Mercy Ships UK, said: “This is an amazing gesture by Lena and all the ladies on Sanday, especially Dolly who is still knitting at 100 years old. Donations like this make such a difference to the child patients onboard the Africa Mercy who love teddies just as much as children here. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone on the island of Sanday that kindly donated wool and gave their time to knit bears for the children on the ship. Their efforts show real compassion and commitment and I know that the children will be thrilled to receive the bears”.