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Charity celebrates 40 years with mascot Paddington Bear

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Action Medical Research is on the hunt for members of Paddington’s Make It Grow club as it celebrates 40 years with its official mascot Paddington BearTM.

Paddington has been at the heart of fundraising for the UK-wide children’s charity ever since his creator, Michael Bond, met Action’s founder Duncan Guthrie back in 1976 and his friendly face has helped to attract thousands of new supporters who together have raised millions of pounds to help babies and children.

Shortly after becoming Action Medical Research’s official mascot, Paddington became the figurehead of Paddington's Make it Grow Club. And now the charity wants to hear from anyone who was part of the society, which later became the Paddington Action Club.

“We're so proud to have been Paddington's favourite UK charity for four decades now so we want people to share any memories of growing up with Paddington and Action,” says Sarah Moss, Action Medical Research's Director of Communications.

“We'd love to hear from supporters who were part of the Paddington's Make It Grow Club back in the 1970s and 1980s, or those who were involved with the Paddington Action Club later on.”

If you were a member of the Make It Grow Club, or the Paddington Action Club, please email Paddington@action.org.uk with your memories of growing up with Paddington or call 01403 327480 – the charity would also love to see copies of any old photographs of Paddington as its mascot.

To celebrate the ruby anniversary, Action Medical Research will also be inviting people to share their memories of its faithful mascot on Twitter and Facebook on 25 June, Paddington’s summer birthday.

For more than 60 years Action Medical Research has helped pioneer treatments and ways to prevent disease that have benefited millions of people in the UK and across the world. Research they’ve funded has helped to beat polio in the UK, develop ultrasound in pregnancy, fight meningitis and prevent stillbirths.

Action Medical Research is currently funding research into meningitis, Down syndrome, epilepsy and premature birth, as well as some rare and distressing conditions that severely affect children.

 

- ENDS -

 

For a high-res image of Paddington with Michael Bond and a young Bonnie Langford, please click on the link below:

https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/paddington_and_michael_bond.jpg

 

For high-res images of Paddington sharing a marmalade sandwich with some young friends, please click on the links below:

https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/paddington_bear_and_sandwiches_1.jpg

https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/paddington_bear_and_sandwiches_2.jpg

https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/paddington_bear_and_sandwiches_4.jpg

 

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

About Paddington:

For almost 60 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has been entertaining children and families all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru famous for his love of marmalade. Since the first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published by HarperCollins in 1958, a further 13 full-length novels and countless other formats have been published. Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen. A second Paddington movie, Paddington 2, is set to launch November, 2017. In recognition of Paddington’s extraordinary popularity and success, Michael Bond was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen for services to children’s literature in 1997 and a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2015.

 

Today, there are over 150 titles available in 40 languages and more than 100 countries, book sales are in excess of 35 million. The Paddington DVD was the fastest and strongest selling DVD of 2015 in the UK. Paddington has a growing online presence with over 600 thousand Facebook fans and over 20 thousand Twitter followers.

Follow Paddington on Twitter at @paddingtonbear  
Like Paddington’s Facebook page at facebook.com/PaddingtonBear 

For more information on Action Medical Research, please contact Ellie Evans, Fundraising Communications Officer, on:

T 01403 327480

E eevans@action.org.uk

W action.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter at @actionmedres and @amr_events  
Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/actionmedres
Follow us at pinterest/actionmedres

Action Medical Research is a leading UK-wide charity saving and changing children’s lives through medical research. For more than 60 years we’ve helped pioneer ways to prevent disease and develop treatments benefiting millions of people. Our research has helped to beat polio in the UK, develop ultrasound, fight meningitis and prevent stillbirths. But we urgently need to develop more new treatments and cures for sick babies and children and we can’t do it without you.

Join our fight for little lives today.

Charity reg. nos 208701 and SC039284.

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