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Horsham-based children’s charity Action Medical Research has launched a treasure hunt in the town to celebrate 40 years with Paddington BearTM as its official mascot.
A set of specially designed stickers have been hidden in small plastic tubs around the maze area of Horsham Park as part of a geocache-style treasure hunt which will run from Friday, 5 August, until Monday, 5 September 2016.
Families can use the four stickers to complete a picture of PaddingtonTM which can be downloaded from the charity’s website; completed pictures can be returned to Action Medical Research for the chance to win a brilliant prize!
Paddington has been at the heart of fundraising for the UK 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.
The charity is marking the anniversary with a number of special appearances by Paddington across the country this summer as well as the themed treasure hunt close to its North Parade headquarters in Horsham.
“We're so proud to have been Paddington's favourite UK charity for four decades and we hope that families will enjoy our sticker hunt in the maze area of Horsham Park,” says Sarah Moss, Action Medical Research's Director of Communications.
“Paddington has been a real part of the Action story for the past 40 years and we’re so grateful for his support as he’s worked tirelessly to help us raise vital funds for sick babies and children.”
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.
For more information and to download the picture and the treasure map, please visit action.org.uk/paddington-treasure-hunt
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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.
In 2016 the Paddington brand was purchased by Studiocanal, part of the Vivendi group.
Follow Paddington on Twitter at @paddingtonbear
Like Paddington’s Facebook page at facebook.com/PaddingtonBear
Paddington Bear™ © Paddington and Co Ltd/Studiocanal S.A. 2016
Licensed on behalf of Studiocanal S.A. by Copyrights Group
For more information on Action Medical Research, please contact Ellie Evans, Fundraising Communications Officer, on:
T 01403 327480
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.