If your favourite soft
toy has lost an eye or
needs to be sewn up,
you can
book an appointment at
Sasha's Teddy Bear Hospital.
I will examine the patient and
choose the right treatment.
Patching, re-stitching,
re-stuffing, reattaching limbs – no job is too
small!
There is even an eye-and-nose
clinic for lost or misplaced parts)))
Sasha’s Teddy Bear Hospital
accepts all species:
your toy does not have to be Teddy to receive
treatment.
Please email, call or
write to me with the details
(see Contact page for the phone number
and the postal address).
Prices
start at £15.
Below are the case stories of some of our patients.
You can find many more in the News section
and the News Archive.
Bruno (June-July
2021)
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Bruno is probably over 100 years old, and his
present owner has had him since birth.
He was much loved (not least by a dog))), but because of his age he was
no longer in a great shape when I first saw him.
It took me a while to get Bruno back into shape. When he was reunited
with his owner, her first words were: It's him! This is how I remember
him!
This was the highest praise I could have hoped for, because my main aim
is always to restore the Teddy, not change him!
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Kyrill (December 2017 - January
2018)
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In December 2017, a very special Teddy came
from Germany to be treated at Sasha's Teddy Bear Hospital.
His name was Kyrill, and he was rather old. He had come into his lady
owner's life in November 1941.
Originally from Russia, Kyrill lived all his life in Germany
and was very well loved.
I was very pleased to have him as a patient at my hospital, and he
appeared to be pleased too))
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Kyrill's treatment took some
time, but it was worth it, and in the end he could look at the
world with new eyes))
Upon his return, Kyrill's adoptive mother said:
"How
wonderful!!!
Kyrill arrived in best condition and he looks so nice and perfectly
healed!
I love the collar on his neck, it is very very chic and fits
beautifully to his appearance.
"...Thank you very very much for
the wonderful work you did, you made me really very happy."
Panda (August 2021)
This panda
(called Panda) has been one of our
most challenging patients.
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Quite old, he arrived literally in pieces,
and had to undergo serious reconstructive surgery.
I was really impressed by Panda's owner, who had kept - and sent to me
- most of the bits and even the stuffing.
I used new felt as "lining" for Panda's head and body, and sewed on top
of it all the pieces I had, plus some matching new ones. The latter had
to be aged artificially to look like the original.
In the end, the patient was well enough to enjoy a bit of sunshine in
the garden before travelling back home.
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"That's incredible! I've never seen him in better shape,"
wrote Panda's owner when I sent him the first post-op photo of the
patient. Once the last detail - the mouth - was added, the owner's
verdict was: "That's
exactly how he was!"
Richard Lion
(March-April 2023)
One day I received a
request to re-create someone's favourite childhood toy
- Richard Lion,
a 1950s Merrythought character from a children's comic.
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The
owner played with his lion a lot when he was a boy, and even made
him new clothes with the help of
his mother.
Alas, the lion was misplaced at some point. Then, years later, the
owner started thinking of him again after watching Repair Shop.
Examples of Richard Lion are very rare, but he did find one, in a
pretty poor condition.
He then emailed Sasha's Teddy
Bear Hospital
and asked
me to re-create the Richard Lion that he remembered from his childhood.
The task,
however, involved not only
repairing the lion
himself.
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I also had to
give
him the same clothes as those made for the earlier Richard
Lion: a
corduroy suit worn over pale yellow underwear - the trousers and the
underpants with a special hole for the tail - and
a felt cap.
Fortunately, the owner had excellent memory, and his drawings and
instructions were most precise and clear, so I knew exactly what I was
aiming at. The owner even sent me the fabric for the suit.
After
the job was completed and a reborn Richard Lion made his way back to
Yorkshire, I received a most pleasing email: "Richard Lion has arrived, and
he's great. Thank you so much, it's really appreciated. You've done an
excellent job."
Garfield (June 2022)
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This 40-year-old patient, who lives in Panama,
suffered life-threatening injuries - unsurprisingly, in a scrap with a
dog (no, it wasn't Odie).
The damage to his face was so extensive that we had to find a donor and
perform what may well be the world's first combined eyes, nose and
teeth transplant.
This worked a treat, and Garfield's loving owner was over the moon when
he came to collect him.
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Ted (September 2021)
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In
the course of his long life, Ted had been patched up and repaired many
times. At some point, he had had his head sewn back on the wrong way
round.
As he had also lost his eyes, he probably was not even aware that he
was facing backwards))
After treatment at Sasha's Teddy Bear Hospital, Ted felt better
than ever and clearly looked forward (in more ways than one) to being
passed on to the next generation in its current owner's family.
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Another Ted (February 2018)
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Made of real sheep skin, Ted was quite poorly
when he arrived at Sasha's Teddy Bear Hospital but I am
happy to report that he made a full recovery and has now rejoined his
family.
I tried to use as much of the original sheep skin as possible but some
new bits had to be added to complete the job.
Despite being more than 50 years old, Ted was very fortunate to have
retained his original eyes - and I believe he now looks at the world
through them in much better spirits!
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"South African" Ted (June 2022)
At the beginning
of 2022, I was contacted by a nice lady in South Africa, who asked if
my hospital admitted
patients from abroad. When reassured that we did not discriminate
against them, she sent 72-year-old Ted on his way.
Ted actually started life in the UK, and only relocated to South Africa
with his family in 1970. It was on that journey that he
sustained
a lot of damage and nearly drowned. Even though he was resuscitated and
went on to live abroad for over 50 years, he was badly in need of
proper treatment for his injuries.
Other patients and my helpers at the
hospital watched with some trepidation as Ted emerged from his box on
arrival. He
did indeed look rather in a bad way, missing an eye and part
of
his head and paw.
However,
Ted showed that he had the inner strength and was determined to get
better soon - and so it proved! Surgery took a long time, but he made a
full recovery and was ready for a long journey back to his family.
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Yarry (February 2023)
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57-year-old
Yarry arrived in
Sasha's Teddy
Bear Hospital with
an obvious neck injury and some unsightly holes in his limbs. His nose
and smile were also in need of some attention.
Made by his
adoring
owner's grandmother, he had been with her since birth, and she would
run into a burning
building to save him.
She vividly remembered from years ago that Yarry once looked quite
different - in her mind's eye, he was red and orangey.
When I unstitched Yarry's green-and-black top and brown leather
trousers, it became clear that she was right - he had different clothes
under the later addition!
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Alas, his original
orange shirt and red pants were beyond repair, so I had to think of
sonmething else to make him look like he used to.
A day trip to
Abingdon, with its amazing Mason's Fabric Shop
and no less wonderful charity shops,
provided a solution. The fabrics I found there were a perfect match for
Yarry's old clothes.
And so, having brought Yarry back to health, I set about making him new
trousers and shirt. I also added a little fetching removable collar.
When my work was finished, the owner told me she was completely
overcome with emotions upon seeing her beloved Yarry just as she
remembered him. |
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Eeyore (March 2022)
Eeyore, a Merrythought
pensioner, arrived in hospital from Lancashire.
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His precise age is unknown: he had been passed
down to his present owner and had been in her care for 63
years.
Over the years, he had become so worn that he was kept in a plastic bag
so as to not lose any more of his sawdust stuffing.
His badly damaged
legs were bandaged.
After treatment, Eyore is now able to stand once again, and he is
liberated from life inside a plastic bag.
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"It made me cry when I saw him after his 'makeover', he now has a new
lease of life. Thankyou Sasha, you did a wonderful job,"
his owner wrote to me when Eeyore arrived back home again.
Anonymous (January 2021)
The first patient
discharged from my Teddy Bear Hospital at the start of 2021, who will
remain anonymous, was a much loved and very nice Teddy of a certain age
(probably about 60).
He was admitted a
couple of weeks earlier because he had lost his voice! My first task,
therefore, was to give him his voice back. After he was admitted, a
further ailment was discovered: a very sore left foot. This too given
all due attention, and the Teddy eventually had the entire sole
replaced. The process involved 'ageing' the patch so that it would not
look out of place on a 60-year-old.
The Teddy has now been
reuinted with his owner, who was very pleased to see him - and hear him
too!
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