The gift of teddy bears will brighten up the stay for parents and babies in the Special Care Baby Unit at Tauranga Hospital.

Terry and Sue Furmage donated the teddy bears, which had been bought by members of the public, to the unit.

Calendar Club licensee Sue Furmage and Misuk Netana with her nine-day-old daughter Rebekah with the teddy bears. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

The couple own the lease on the Calendar Club Kiosk at Bayfair.

'The public have an opportunity to buy a teddy bear for themselves personally but not everyone wants to have a teddy bear, so Calendar Club saw an opportunity for people to buy a teddy bear and donate it to a good cause,” says Sue.

'When we explained what SCBU is about, a lot of people were more than happy to donate one or two teddy bears.” The SCBU is something close to the Furmage's hearts after their twin daughters had to spend time in the unit in Auckland 20 years ago.

'Because we have twin girls who were six weeks premature themselves, we thought it would be a great opportunity to give back to the special care baby unit at Tauranga Hospital.”

Sue says Kelly was born weighing 1.7kg and Jodi came in at 2.5kg.

'I appreciate what the mums are going through because it's a little bit harrowing when your new ones are in SCBU and they need to be looked after and you're not too sure how they are going to pull through or not.

'I had two at once, which was a bit more harrowing. Kelly was okay, she just needed a bit of fattening up, but Jodi had a few respiratory issues which was a bit worrying.”

Sue says it's good to be able to reach out to the mothers who are going through the same thing, some of them a bit worse, and give them something, especially at this time of the year.

SCBU clinical nurse coordinator Marian Wordsworth says it's marvellous to receive the teddy bears.

'Our babies need toys just like everyone else and it's lovely to get the teddy bears. We have about 330 babies come through SCBU each year. Quite a few babies.

'The babies are all here for a different number of reasons, a lot of them are premature, but there are other babies that just need special care.”