Pudsey Bear to head off on Stirling travels again as veteran fundraiser dons suit

A Stirling fundraising veteran is ready to once again don the famous Pudsey costume for a series of fun challenges in support of Children in Need.

The charity effort is all being organised, as ever, by the volunteers at the Stirling and Bridge of Allan Round Table - with local organiser Paul Ford stepping into the role of the bear to keep up his decade-long support of Children in Need.

The 2022 challenge - taking place on the appeal day on Friday - will once again see Paul scale Dumyat in the Pudsey costume, before visiting St Ninians Primary in Stirling to spend some time with excited pupils to complete their activities on the day.

It will all end at Blair Drummond, where Pudsey will meet some of the animals at the safari park, as well as delighting youngsters and families in attendance.

A previous effort in 2020 saw the famous bear visiting a series of local attractions - including Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument, while Pudsey scaled Dumyat for the first time in 2021 as organisers attempted to find a way to continue under the restrictions of Covid.

Paul wants to spread the message of the importance of exercise and fresh air to schoolchildren through his Dumyat climb, tying in with the national walking campaign by fitness expert Joe Wicks.

Paul told the Observer: “We’ve been invited into St Ninians this year to support their activities which is fantastic, they’re doing a lot of their own work and seeing Pudsey Bear is something they’ve always wanted.

“The safari park have always been very supportive of us and we’ll be there on the day, able to walk around and say hello to people.

“It’s going to be a bit of a full-on day, we’re starting at Dumyat at 8am, then we’ll get to the school and go into the classrooms before going off to the safari park in the afternoon to finish things off.

“The inclusion of being able to go into a school is a huge difference this year, last year we tried to organise something with the schools but we weren’t able to do anything because of the restrictions on gatherings and especially gatherings involving external people.

“St Ninians are well up for it this year and it’s hopefully something we can build on in future years because we want to promote Pudsey as an icon for young

children. The Dumyat part of the day is just to offer a challenge element so hopefully the wider Stirling public can consider supporting us on our JustGiving page. As ever, 100 per cent of the money raised goes to Children in Need and all of us running the event are volunteers.”