HE’S the mascot of a Hampshire charity and now he will be jetting off to other countries around the world promoting the cause.

Dressed in surgeon’s scrubs, Dr Ted will be packing a suitcase as he goes around the world to join families on their holidays representing Where There’s A Will.

It’s hoped that while the soft ambassador is travelling the globe his presence will raise awareness of the charity set up by Romsey woman Heather Parsons.

It is the first venture after her charity, which helps provide support for people and their families at Southampton General Hospital’s general intensive care unit (GICU), was picked out by Southampton Airport as their chosen charity of the year.

People can contact Heather and ask if they can take Dr Ted, or his travelling buddy Kevin, provided by Southampton Airport, on trips abroad and help her promote the good cause.

She wants people to take photographs of the teddies at world-famous landmarks as they go about their travels.

Already Dr Ted has been jet-setting around the world with a trip to New York and taking in the sights of the city like Times Square and Grand Central Station and hanging out with New York’s finest.

Daily Echo:

He will also be heading off to the other wide of the world later this spring.

Heather, 54, said: “We’ve already started, we’ve got him up and running. We went to Times Square and to Grand Central Station and we hung out with an NYPD cop.

“He’s off to New Zealand next where he will be visiting an intensive care unit there.”

She hoped that others would come forward and ask to take Dr Ted with them, and added there was a serious message to all of it.

“Everything’s about raising awareness of the Intensive Care unit and the seriousness of it. It’s a hard thing to engage people with and to get people to realise.

“You have to get people to be aware of what patients, carers and families have to go through at intensive care.”

Heather knows what people and their families can go through in intensive care.

In 2002 the hospital miraculously saved her life after she was struck down with the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis in 2002, which had eaten into her buttocks, thigh and calf.

Since then she has raised tens of thousands of pounds and in 2011 she set up Where There’s a Will, which has raised more than £30,000 to support other patients and their families.

Plans are being finalised for six “big” fundraising events held in the main concourse at Southampton Airport throughout the year including a Strictly Come Dancing-style event following her entry into the People’s Strictly competition.

All funds raised will be used to redevelop and refurbish the GICU Waiting Room to provide more facilities and so make it more comfortable for visitors at a time when the wait can feel unbearable.

Where there’s a Will looks at offering comfort and support to relatives who find themselves waiting to hear the news about their loved ones as well as support and home visits after patients have been discharged from the hospital.

Where there’s a Will also works within the community raising awareness of the needs of those who have been affected by critical illness.

Heather added: “I hope people can make a small donation and get me a waiting room at Southampton General Hospital general intensive care unit.

“I will have a proper waiting room at the hospital for relatives.”

For more, and to ask to have Dr Ted as a travelling buddy, visit www.facebook.com/WTAWDrTed