12 Oct YouTuber Emma Cruises launches new toy to help Mercy Ships transform lives
YouTuber Emma Cruises has launched a new toy replica of her on-screen cat with all profits going to Mercy Ships again.
Version 3 of Captain Hudson is only on sale by pre-order until 22nd October. Within 24 hours of it being released, her fan base and supporters of Mercy Ships had pre-ordered more than 1,000 of the toys, which this time features Hudson in a tuxedo.
Emma Le Teace, 29, from Sussex is a thriving international social media star for the cruising market and has 278,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. She reviews cruises for the holiday market and, while doing home recordings, Hudson her rescue cat became an unsuspecting star.
Now her fans buy her plush felines, which have already raised £28,300 for Mercy Ships, and take them on cruises with them, posting photos of their adventures on social media.
Emma hopes this version of the cat, suitable for taking to dinners onboard ships, will raise thousands more for Mercy Ships.
Previous plush versions of the cat featured him with a captain’s scarf and then wearing a life jacket. Sales and reaction to the cats have surpassed her expectations with orders in their thousands each time.
Emma said:
“I wanted to create something that would not only raise money for Mercy Ships but bring our community together and it has definitely done that! I can’t believe how many lives this toy has transformed and I am so grateful to my followers for helping us save people’s lives in this way.”
Mercy Ships UK Chief Executive Joanne Balaam said:
“We were excited to hear that Emma is doing this for us again. We are delighted with how much she has raised for Mercy Ships and want to thank her supporters who are also doing so much to raise money and highlight what we do with their social posts. They are all making a life-changing impact to so many lives in sub-Saharan Africa.”
The limited time to pre-order allows them to be made and then be shipped, which means Emma hopes everyone will receive their latest Captain Hudson by Christmas.
Emma’s cruise channel took off in lockdown after being established in 2017.
In 2021, the maths graduate quit her data development job to devote herself fulltime to being a YouTuber and cruise writer, and work with travel agents to sell cruises she features.