A town centre knitting shop has teamed up with Northwich Police to help bring comfort to children if they’re ever involved in an incident.

Crafty Stitches, which is situated on Witton Street opposite Halifax, have been knitting ‘trauma teddies’ which are to be kept at Northwich Police Station.

The idea came about after Special Constable Sarah Johns attended an incident where a child was present and having heard of trauma teddies, she asked her sergeant if they could be organised for Northwich Police Station.

This is where Crafty Stitches stepped in as Louise Hough, who is web-sales and promotions director at the company, explains: “A few years ago we tried to launch trauma teddies in Cheshire but it never really took off. However when Sarah mentioned the idea I immediately knew how we could help. I produced the pattern and said we would put the call out.

“The purpose behind the teddies is for the emergency services to be able to provide some comfort to a child when there is a time of distress to them. They help to calm the child and be a distraction to what is going on around them.

“The teddies are all very similar in terms of height and style too so that two children together are not upset by the other having a fancier teddy than them.”

Crafty Stitches have been heavily involved in charitable and community work over the last few years and when Sarah approached them with the initiative, their knitters couldn’t wait to get started.

“Our knitters have been on the lookout for the next charitable knitting project since our ‘hats for heroes’ campaign with the Royal British Legion and this is right up our street,” said Louise, before also commenting on how Crafty Stitches wanted to get involved with a project to give something back to the emergency services.

“We love to help the community as much as we can and seeing the police, fire and ambulance services being in such great demand recently, this is the perfect time to remind them how much the general public support them for all that they do for us.

“It also shows that in a time of need, someone is thinking about those concerned and provides a little bit of comfort and hope.”

As well as the trauma teddies, they have also been working hard on some new window displays and will be opening up choices on themes to customers later this year.

“We have decided to invite customers to make suggestions for a window display later in the year – give us a theme and we will put it in the window.”

For updates and the latest news on upcoming projects and initiatives at Crafty Stitches, make sure you check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CraftyStitches/