Fire & Rescue

Buddy Bear to the rescue with Derbyshire FRS

FireAngel are delighted to sponsor Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service's trauma teddy to help comfort young children involved in an incident.

Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service’s trauma teddy initiative, more endearingly known as Buddy Bear, was introduced in 2018 to help provide comfort and diffuse painful memories for children.

This year, FireAngel are proud to sponsor Buddy Bear to provide a friend for young children and become a keepsake of the firefighters who helped them through a difficult experience.

Lee Jones, Watch Manager at Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, explained how Buddy Bear had helped both the Service and the community they support:

As an emergency service we’re very focused on people involved in emergencies, talking to them and explaining what’s happening and how we’re there to help. However, it can be very difficult to build a quick rapport with children.

“Using a Buddy Bear can help quickly break down this barrier and help try to take their mind away from the traumatic situation they may be in. The bear is theirs to keep, which hopefully works as a positive influence.”

Buddy bear 

Since launching the community initiative, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service has received many stories of how Buddy Bear has supported little ones through a difficult experience, such as Ruby who wrote to the fire service to say thank you.

“To the firefighters who helped me get the rake out of my foot, thank you for Buddy the teddy bear. I love him, he even has a bandage on his foot like me. I’m getting better now thanks to the three firefighters and ambulance people.”

But it’s not just children who have shared their experiences of Buddy Bear with the Service, many firefighters from Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Services have positive memories to share including this testimony…

“Today we attended an incident, when a two year old girl locked herself in her Mum’s car. We managed to get the car unlocked but the little girl was very upset by the whole experience. She was crying a lot and visibly shaken by the incident.

“When she saw Buddy Bear, being brought across the scene, she suddenly was distracted from crying. When she was given Buddy, she smiled and gave him a bug hug saying ‘thank you’ in her best voice.

“Mum was most relieved, by us not only rescuing her child but also that a bad experience had become a good one for her child.”

We’re proud to support Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service’s trauma teddy initiative and hope the bears continue to spread comfort to children who need it the most.

Why not find out more about how FireAngel support our community?