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Greg James sparks #BearHomeForChristmas search

Brad Maddison Arthur the teddyBrad Maddison
The traffic manager who found the bear said he looked like an "Arthur"

Radio 1 breakfast host Greg James has joined in the nationwide search for the owner of a bear found on the M4.

The motorway's traffic manager, Brad Maddison, discovered "Arthur" on the M4 Westbound, next to Reading Services, on 29 November and tweeted about it.

He contacted Radio 1 after hundreds of retweets did not create any leads, and was invited on James's breakfast show.

BBC Radio 1 said: "Greg's determined to find the bear's owner before Christmas Day."

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Mr Maddison said: "On Sunday I was on the M4 doing a bit of a maintenance run, driving through the site, making sure it's safe, when I stumbled across a teddy bear.

"I thought to myself, 'that is somebody's teddy bear, and out there somewhere is a child broken-hearted over the fact that they don't have their teddy bear anymore'.

"So I picked it up... took a photo of it, stuck it on Twitter."

After hundreds of shares of the post, including one from Highways England, he decided to contact James in the hope of sharing the message with his millions of listeners.

On air, Mr Maddison challenged James to reunite the bear with its owner by Christmas.

James said: "Challenge accepted."

Radio 1 has created the hashtag #bearhomeforchristmas and has posted about the search for Arthur on all its social media platforms.

Mr Maddison said the most distinctive feature of the dirty, brown bear with no eyes is that is sporting a "pistachio green scarf".