A teddy bear found washed up on a beach in Cornwall with just a face left has been lovingly rebuilt – by a priest.

‘Sinbad’ the teddy was found by a local environmentalist campaigner after a storm in January 2022 at Porth beach near Newquay.

Just its face was remaining – nestled in between some shells and sea weed.

Rev Canon Eleanor Rance saw a picture of the bear on social media quickly messaged about the teddy. She then set about trying to give him new life in year-long recovery published bit by bit on Twitter @LegoLostAtSea.

The Rector of Salisbury Plain and a former RAF chaplain said when she saw the poor teddy’s face she desperately wanted to try and fix him up.

She said: “When I saw the Twitter post, I though he looked so sad but that he could have a lot of life left in him still.

‘I offered to try and restore him and he arrived in a cardboard envelope, smelling strongly of the sea. He was completely caked in seaweed and had stones and tiny shells in his ears.

“The fact that he was battered and wounded but could still have a life and a future – it’s a story we all understand and relate to. People who meet him want to love and care for him, as I did.”

After first mending the holes in his face, she realised that he was still fluffy behind the ears as she started re-attaching new parts to him in her spare time.

Once his head was mended, Eleanor set about matching him to a new body and realised he was a large bear - standing at around 50 centimetres high.

She added: “His eyes and nose were still there and had become opaque, like sea glass.

"He must have been in the sea for ages. He must have been loved very much once, but there is no way of knowing who he belonged to.”

Sinbad, named in honour of his long journey at sea like the legendary fictional pirate and explorer of the same name, has since become a therapy bear – often visiting schools and retirement homes to teach people about his journey.

Efforts are still being made to trace where he may have come from, after Eleanor carefully kept all the pieces of seaweed that fell out of his fur.

A marine biologist in Shrewton has since offered to examine the seaweed to see if they may even be able to work out how long he was at sea.