Spy cameras join bid to end tot’s heartbreak

IT WAS an emergency so urgent that even CCTV - the town's secret spy operation - were called on to help.

"Big Brother" swung its powerful eye into action and swept its lenses around the streets of Macclesfield in a bid to find... a tatty panda!

When four-year-old toddler Hannah Eccleston lost her favourite cuddly toy after it fell out of her baby brother's pram while out shopping she could "bearly" contain herself.

She broke her heart!

A search party was instantly formed and all the family were on panda alert.

Finally, the council kindly offered to help and its CCTV operation, whose cameras keep an eye on the streets of the town, came to the rescue... but sadly without success.

But meanwhile they have loaned her their mascot Sam, the lion, so she could have a friend to hug until panda is safely home.

Now it is the turn of the Macclesfield Expresss and its readers to help turn Hannah's tears into smiles by appealing to them to help reunite her with this cute little black and white number in time for Christmas.

A replacement is no good - it has to be the original panda named Panda.

"We need to find my bear, or I'll be sad," said Hannah, looking forlornly into Andrew's pram as her little brother cuddled his mini version of the toy.

The missing cuddly fell out of her baby brother's pram somwhere in town, possibly on Chestergate or Churchill Way, and Hannah cannot imagine Christmas Day without him.

She had him when she was just one, and after struggling with the pronunciation, it came out as "Papa" - her first ever word!

Mum Joanna Eccleston, 41, who lives with company director husband Richard, at Victoria Mansions in Macclesfield, said: "She loves that bear, it goes everywhere - out on her bike, on holiday, to pre-school.

"We've looked everywhere, retraced our steps, phoned the police, even the council have looked on CCTV, and my husband, Richard, went out again last night to knock on doors.

"But we can't find him, usually people hand these sorts of things in."

And poor Panda, who is used to being snuggled under Hannah's arm, is all alone on the cold streets - very upsetting for a bear used to having its every whim panda-ed to.

Joanna said: "Her auntie has knitted it a little red scarf and hat set for Christmas - he'll be cold out there without them.

"And Panda has cataracts - his eyes are all faded from all the washes he's had over the years."

A spokesman from CCTV, a council-run operation, said: "We just really wanted to help Hannah find her panda. We have loaned her our special CCTV mascot until she gets him back.

"We have never done anything like this before but there again we have never been asked!"