Elizabeth Day

And one day my father drove home from work and he at the time drove a Mini Cooper.

And there in the passenger seat of that Mini was this bear with a seatbelt over his front.

And my dad had given me a bear.

He'd found a bear in a shop that he was just like, this is for you.

And I was so touched by it.

It's probably one of the best presents I've ever been given.

But I was specifically touched with the fact that the seatbelt had been there.

He'd taken the care.

And at that time, Thomas didn't have his waistcoat.

That was a later edition.

But I named this bear after my father, who is also called Thomas.

And the reason Thomas is so special to me is obviously his origin story.

But then a few months after I turned four, we actually moved from Epsom to the north of Ireland, where my father had got a job as a surgeon at Atna Galvin Hospital in Derry.

And at the time, that part of the world was quite a tough place to live.

It was at the height of the troubles.

And to be a little girl with an English accent was slightly strange.

And most people thought that I was part of a military family, which, of course, I wasn't.

And at primary school, that was fine.

I had a really nice experience.

But Thomas came with me through that.