I’m really looking forward to starting our Roadshow in Australia later this week, seeing old friends, meeting new supporters and catching everyone up with the news. Despite my excitement, there has been one small downside to the explosion of good news – knowing that I was going back to let everyone know that we still hadn’t secured the release of any of the 24 bears held illegally on farms in Vietnam.

It would be an understatement to say how frustrating this time has been for us all, but last Thursday all that dramatically changed, because suddenly, here we all were, welcoming bears who have waited such a long, long time to be freed from the farms. Our promise to these bears is finally coming true.

With grateful thanks to every single one of you across the world who has helped to write letters, sent words of support and always kept the faith that they would one day be free. Hopefully the remaining bears in that very patient group will be with us in the next week or two.