Woman starts business to save cuddly toys
A woman who has a lifetime's love for cuddly toys has now started her own business to save discarded "friends".
Jenny Linsell Steatham, 36, from Wolverhampton started Jen's Friends - Teddy Rescue on January 11 and aims to take in donated cuddly toys and deep clean them before finding them new homes.
Mother-of-two Jenny said: "My mother and I used to make up stories about my toys when I was young and I referred to them as my friends.
"They went on holiday and featured in photographs and during lockdown I decided to start a soft toy adoption agency.
"I am using it as a chance to start my own business and one that means I get to hang out with cute cuddly toys all day long.
"I am washing, steaming, brushing and packaging the toys in special boxes that can be made into beds for them by their new owners.
"They are sold with an adoption card and note of their name, back history and even star sign as I did not want them to become anonymous.
"I also decided to donated 20 per cent of any of my profit to Barnardo's children's charity."
Jenny works from home and is hoping people will donate toys and complete information cards detailing their history so that this can be passed on to new owners.
She said: "Cuddly toys, or friends as I like to call them, hold a special place in everyone's hearts no matter how old people are and Jen's Friends allows them to continue their story and reduce the number of single use toys and help to save the planet.
Anyone wanting more information is asked to log onto Jenny's jensfriends.co.uk website.
