Youngsters and their teddy bears went to St John’s for a picnic and treasure hunt in the Arboretum.

More than 100 families attended the event which was organised by Miss Isle of Man finalist Rachel Corlett on behalf of Manx Breast Cancer Support and the Isle of Man Freemasons.

Some of the teddies brought along to the event had originally been given to the children through the Freemason’s Teddies for Loving Care (TLC) initiative.

This has been running on the island since 2011 and has so far donated more than 4,000 teddy bears to children attending hospital apppointments.

Doctors and nurses will offer them to comfort or distract a child or for the child to use as a prop to show ’where it hurts’.

The Freemasons teamed up with Manx Breast Cancer Support Group, to hold the event which was organised by Rachel Corlett, Manx Breast Cancer Support Group’s entrant for the upcoming Miss Isle of Man contest.

The 12 finalists in the contest have all committed to raise money for their designated charity.

Sunday’s event raised over £500 which will be added to the £10,000 Rachel has raised so far raised.

The children also got the chance to enjoy a treasure hunt.

Families were given a set of clues on arrival, each one relating to a different location in the Arboretum: when they managed to work out the clues and arrive at the locations they found a treasure chest awaiting them and an invitation for the children to pick something out of it.

Rachel Corlett said: ’About half of the children had brought their TLC bears with them.

’It was so sweet to see.

’And when the children had done their treasure hunt the Freemasons offered them a bear hunt to get another of the TLC bears so loads of the children came out with two!’

Provincial Grand Master Keith Dalrymple said: ’As Freemasons we work closely with local charities to help their fundraising.’

Julie Stokes of the Manx Breast Cancer Support Group added: ’We were pleased that local Masons threw their weight behind this picnic to raise much needed funds.’