TEDDIES handmade by residents across Worcestershire have been handed to a Kidderminster charity worker and will be sent off to give children in war-torn Syria "something to love".

Chris Doncaster, 67, of Honeybrook Lane, is the county's branch organiser for charity Teddies for Tragedies and has collected 400 knitted teddy bears, 250 glove puppets, 137 children's blankets and 10 refuge sacks of children's jumpers, cardigans, hats, scarves and mittens and handed them to SKT Welfare to take on an aid convoy.

The items will be packed on to second hand ambulances which are being driven by volunteers to the Turkish boarder with Syria next month.

Mrs Doncaster said: "I was working with the SKT people and they wanted to take as much as they possibly could over there. All the items have been handmade by local people and donated to me. I just hope it gives a child something to love and cuddle and hang on to in the midst of what is going on in Syria.

"Everything has been made by local people and we have a lot of people working very hard to make these."

The organiser said she and SKT volunteer Rehana Bi had filled two carloads of teddy bears last week to take to the charity's base in Birmingham.

"We could not get all the stuff into Mrs Bi's car so I followed her up in my car," Mrs Doncaster said.

The Kidderminster resident has been involved in Teddies for Tragedies since 2005 and has since become the main point of contact for those wishing to donate items in Worcestershire and also helps organise collections nationally.

"I now take virtually anything that is handmade or knitted," she said. "Clothes, blankets and I supply local hospitals. We are not registered and there is no money involved everything is donated by the ladies who make the stuff.

"It works both ends, it is great for the people who make things here and it is great at the other end for the children who have got nothing and are living in very poor countries. They get a toy to play with and sometimes they have to be taught how to play with them.

"I try to persuade people who take things abroad and do charity work that, I do not want anything for it but could they just bring a photograph of the children with the things so I can use it in the charity's newsletter I send out."

If anyone knows of any projects which could take items from Teddies for Tragedies abroad, contact Mrs Doncaster by emailing chris.doncaster@btinternet.com