               |
 |
Baxterbear is a supporter of many charities and like us is a huge supporter of The Soldiers’ Charity.
For many years he lived in Scotland, just off Edinburgh's famous Royal
Mile, right beside Edinburgh Castle Esplanade.
He has been fortunate to have lived in many places across the globe.
Places like Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where he was a tea-tasting bear until
the outbreak of World War Two.
During the time of World War Two is where his story begins.
He was
Co-piloting a reconnaissance plane with his good friend RAF Pilot
Baxter. They would fly missions over the Burmese jungle, flying only 500
feet above the tree tops to take photographs for the British Army. Their
reconnaissance plane was a special plane that carried no guns. On one of
these missions they were shot down from the skies, crash-landing in the
thick jungle below.
As he came to, he realised that they were both hanging from their
parachutes high in the jungle canopy. From the pain in his shoulder, he
knew that he had been injured. Hanging from the tree tops, he looked
across at Pilot Baxter. He was drifting in and out of consciousness and
he hoped against hope that he would be okay. It was then that he decided
that if they survived, he would spend the rest of his life helping
people to stay positive. This was when his nine point philosophy on life
was born.
Amazingly, on the fifth day they were rescued by an Army Gurkha unit and
taken for treatment to an Army field hospital at Imphal in India. Here
Pilot Baxter slowly recovered from his life-threatening injuries. To
this day, he still carries reminders of his own injuries, a patched
shoulder and a torn ear.
Through this experience Baxterbear has a strong bond with the Army and
his mission is to help people whenever and wherever by trying to stay
positive.
Most importantly, he wants to make a difference.
Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force is helping to raise the profile of
Baxterbear and his link with The Soldiers’ Charity. Having joined Cambs
ACF Baxterbear is going to tell his story of his time with us through
our blog
http://www.cambsacf.com/blog/ . Keep checking the blog to see what
he gets up to.
If you are interested in purchasing a Baxterbear to help make a
difference then please register your interest with the webmaster at
webmastercambsacf@btinternet.com . If enough people show an interest
we will order them in bulk, detachments may like to buy them as part of
their fundraising to sell to cadets instructors or at events.
