A DISABLED Teesdale boy is helping to prove “life isn’t uniform” after becoming the face of a high street giant’s back to school campaign.
Teddy Berriman, who lives in Copley, has been hired to model Marks and Spencer’s school clothes this year.
The six-year-old was one of about 30 youngsters from across the UK who were chosen to star in the campaign, which aims to celebrate diversity.
Teddy was born prematurely at 32 weeks and spent the first two weeks of his life in intensive care.
At two, doctors discovered that Teddy was brain damaged. Following an MRI scan, he was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disorder called spastic quadriplegia, a disabling form of spastic cerebral palsy.
The condition mainly affects his lower limbs, meaning that he can’t walk, stand or sit unaided.
He needs round-the-clock care and must use a frame or wheelchair to move around. He also suffers from three different types of epilepsy, autism and is partially sighted.
Teddy’s mum, Nicola Short, says she signed her son up for a modelling agency before his diagnosis but he was soon taken off the books.
She said: “Once he was diagnosed, he was rejected and we were told as he is disabled he wouldn’t get any work.
“We were very disheartened and with the thought of ‘is this going to be like this all his life?’ we never bothered anymore.
“We enquired with other agencies and the response was not that much more positive.”
However, Teddy is now proving them all wrong.
Following a successful photo shoot in April, the Butterknowle Primary School pupil is now featured on the Marks and Spencer website promoting the store’s school wear range.
This follows his modelling role for high street fashion chain River Island as part of their diversity campaign in February.
Teddy was signed up by Zebedee Management in June last year, a unique modelling agency which specialises in representing people with disabilities.
Ms Short said: “With my gut instinct I knew I was going to do this for him and his fantastic journey began.
“I am so proud of him and I’m so happy. Words cannot explain how it makes me feel seeing him enjoying himself and achieving fantastic things.
“I am truly grateful to Zebedee for giving disabled individuals fantastic equal opportunities.
“They are a fantastic group of people and took on all of my concerns.”
The head of kidswear marketing at M&S, Ryan Becker, said: “We had a brilliant time shooting this year’s back to school campaign with a great bunch of kids and Teddy was a pleasure to work with.
“The theme of our adverts is life isn’t uniform, so it was especially important to have a diverse range of models wearing our clothes.”
Meanwhile, Teddy has also been selected as one of the backing dancers for BBC Sport’s Super Movers learning campaign.
Super Movers is a partnership between the Premier League and the BBC which aims to inspire primary school children to get active.
Teddy took part in filming last month and advertising clips are now randomly being aired between TV programmes on BBC channels.
Teddy is also set to star in a new CBeebies TV show, Kit and Pup.
Filming for the science-based programme took place back in November last year and it is due to be aired next month.
Ms Short added: “Teddy absolutely loves it and beams with pride and excitement. He loves the camera and people. He turned to me the other day and said ‘mum I’m so proud of what I have done’. He’s a little trooper.”
