Callie's all smiles after Asda colleagues track down a replacement for her favourite bear

Two-year-old Callie has been cuddling her favourite Asda bear Ned Ted since she was born – and with him starting to show signs of wear and tear her mum Sammy Finley put out a desperate plea on social media after struggling to find a replacement.

Our colleague Josh Kerrigan, who works in our home office in Leeds, saw Sammy's appeal for help and, after checking with different stores, discovered the bear had been discontinued.

His colleagues in our buying team found that Ned Ted's bigger brother Fred Ted was still available, so dropped one off for Josh to send to Callie's home in Llangollen, along with a personal message to Callie.

Sammy says Callie is thrilled and hasn't stopped playing with her new bear – now called Mitty.

She said: "My cousin bought Ned for Callie when she was first born. It took her six months to really be able to get a grip of him, but when she did she never put him down.

"He's a bit tatty now though and looks about 20 years old, even though he's only two! I asked on local Facebook groups to see anyone had a spare Ned that I could pick up, but nothing. I had a look on Google and eBay to try to find another one of these bears, but nothing. We just wanted one in case we lost him! I then sent a tweet to Asda's service team to see if they could track one down."

Sammy says she couldn't believe it when Josh got in touch with good news and arranged to send Callie her new bear free of charge.

She said: "Callie is made up! She's called him the bear Mitty as she's already got a Fred. She's been sharing dinner with both bears and plays with him and Ned all the time. She loves him.

"We'd like to say a huge thank you to Josh and the team. We are super impressed. It was incredibly kind what Josh did. He really went above and beyond for us and he's made a little girl very, very happy."

Josh wrote a letter to Callie saying: "My friend has told me that you really like to spend time with Ned Ted and share your food and play time with him. We think it is time for you to meet his big brother, Fred Ted. Fred Ted has travelled a long way to find his little brother and to spend some time with him.

"He's heard how much you love Ned Ted and I would really like you to look after him too. He loves to be cuddled and his favourite food is porridge with honey. He loves to go on picnics and maybe one day him and Ned Ted can go out on walks and days out with you."

Sammy was so delighted she posted on Facebook to thank Josh and the team for their help:

Josh, who's worked for Asda for 10 months, said: "The thought of a little child without her favourite bear was just heartbreaking. We tried to see if we could get one from her local store at first at Wrexham but we couldn't so we looked to see if there were any at any of our other stores across the UK, but sadly there wasn't. We then reached across to our buying team to see if they could help.

"They tried, but it looked like the bear has been discontinued. They did however manage to get hold of an alternative bear who's a little bit bigger and brought him to my desk. I packed him up ready for his adventure with Callie and got him to the post room. I thought I'd do a little back story for Callie too just to make it a bit more personal.

"I always work hard to make a difference where I can, but this was a full team effort too. Seeing the feedback from Sammy was just so heartwarming and I am glad we managed to make Callie so happy. It may be something so small, but it's meant so much to Callie."