Mum and daughter who created a teddy bear to help children suffering with mental ill health have warned many young people urgently need more support.
The TroubleMuncher toy was designed and invented by Lynn and her daughter Samantha, who has suffered from an eating disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Lynn trained as a counsellor to support Samantha, after finding she couldn’t access the help her daughter needed.
And they use their shared knowledge to create the TroubleMuncher which is now bringing comfort to families across the UK and is also in some schools.
Speaking about the bear on GB News, which crowned them as ‘Greatest Britons’, Samantha said: “You write your little troubles down, put it in the rucksack on the bear’s back and the parents actually take the note out and they read the troubles. So it's both benefiting the parents and it's really cathartic to actually write things down.
Mum Lynn, the author of Hope With Depression added: “In today's technology-fueled world I think this helps kids to go back to basics, and it just helps them to process things better by writing it down.
“We’ve known that some children have written their troubles down and then just left the bear on the side, gone to school, knowing that the parents are going to take the troubles out.
“It's in schools too, in the libraries or the cosy corners or the different places that they can go for nurture. Everyone's so busy these days. It's quite hard to be in the right place at the right time to listen. And he just works as a safety net.
”The Troublemunche comes with a rucksack on its back, and a small notepad meaning kids who own one are encouraged to write down and share any problems they have. And, like any teddy bear, it’s there to cuddle too when they feel sad. The bear is also linked to a free-to-download app, which lets the child communicate directly with the TroubleMuncher bear. In the app an animated version of the bear listens to the problem and then munches the issue away.
Samantha added: “I hope that one day the Trouble Muncher will find a home in every primary, nursery and pre-school where the children will know they have a special friend. A trouble shared is a trouble halved.”
The impact the bear has had on those who received it is far reaching.
A spokesman for Parklands Community School in Chichester which has one of the bears said: “The Trouble Muncher has made himself at home in the Nurture Room of a Children’s Nursery School, where the children absolutely love him – and how he helps them to express their feelings and worries’.Lillie Bailey, whose daughter Darla has a bear, added: “The Trouble Muncher has encouraged my daughter to talk about her feelings in a fun and safe way’.‘
The Trouble Muncher is not just any old soft toy, but a very special soft toy and a big part of my daughter's everyday life and wellbeing’.
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