‘I love him so much I could cry’: adults who have cuddly toys

Ash Davies with Bread Teddy: ‘He’s still the first thing I look for if I wake at night.’ Photograph: David Yeo/The Guardian

‘I don’t want my children touching him – I’d worry it would taint his smell’: Ash Davies, gaming analyst, 27, and Bread Teddy, Liverpool

When my twin sister and I were born, Mum was given two identical bears by my aunt, with bobbly fur the colour of shortbread, and chocolate-brown bows around their necks. My sister didn’t “hug on to” hers, but I couldn’t sleep a night without mine. I called him Bread Teddy, convinced by The Teddy Bears’ Picnic that sandwiches were bears’ favourite food.