In 2012, our co-founder, Nicola Miller started writing Little Ted stories to help her own son after his diagnosis of XP aged just 13 months. Having found no age-appropriate reading available to help her explain this very complex condition to him writing her own seemed the natural step. The character Little Ted was the hero and very quickly the family fell in love with him, and the first Little Ted series was born—now a suite of six stories in multiple languages, plus a beloved UV reactive Little Ted bear to hug. 
 
Realising the power these simple stories have in helping our youngsters with understanding life with XP and in opening up dialogue with their peers we set ourselves a very ambitious objective—is to reach every child with XP made know to us globally with the gift of Little Ted.

Owning your own Little Ted

To be eligibility for our Little Ted programme you must be a child aged 0-12 years with a confirmed diagnosis of XP.

​If your child, or a child you know meets this criteria and hasn't already received our pack please email our team to find out how to get your Little Ted pack:  [email protected]

​​Each pack contains:
  • 1 x Little Ted bear (complete with UV protective clothing and UV reactive feature)
  • 1 x set of two Little Ted books, containing six stories (topics range from living with XP, starting nursery / school attending clinics, being a sibling of a child with XP and more)
Please note all books are printed in English as standard, however, we do also have a number of translated versions, so if you require translation please let us know when you contact us.

We welcome enquiries from individuals, XP support groups and societies who
​we are very happy to work with. Groups should contact us with details of their geographic region covered and number of their eligible children.

​Free downloads

Our complete Little Ted series is also available to download for FREE in most e-ready formats, making it easy for Little Ted to reach as many people as possible. Click links below to download and enjoy. If you would like hard copies for friends, family or nursery or school setting please get in touch.

​The making of Little Ted
It took 12 months from completing the initial Little Ted stories, to holding a set of the finished books and bear in our hands. This was only possible due to the dedication of our amazing team who all worked tirelessly on this project, and above all believed in us and the project. (Right from the first call when we rambled about creating books and bears to send to children around the world....with no previous experience!).
​
Michael Howdon was our first enlist, who immediately agreed to illustrate what at the time was 3 stories....and very quickly became 6! Michael worked very closely with us to achieve the right styling and format for the stories and everyone involved fell in love with his illustrations.

Next was Jane Ward at Parkers Design & Print, who leapt in to help considerably with guiding us through the process and with formatting and printing of the books. And in order to reach the point of ordering our first set of books we needed funds and so Jane helped us create our BAKE. MAKE. DO book which we produced to raise funds to get the Little Ted project off the ground, and which we continue to sell to fund the continuation of this project.

​Then of course what was missing was Little Ted our lovable bear. Kerstin Blackburn from Canterbury Bears immediately understood our vision and believed in the project and very quickly we had Little Ted Mark 1. With a few tweaks, some adding and taking away of stuffing and creating his unique UV reactive paw our finished bear was ready...well nearly?

Every XP bear needs his own UV protective clothing. This was tricky! As Little Ted is an educational resource it was vital that his clothing was authentic and would prove `safe` if tested by the children, so paying close attention to detail, every Little Ted is dressed in UV protective clothing. 

Job done....just the small task of pre-hugging every bear before it is sent to its new home and shipping them across the world! OUR FAVOURITE JOB!