CHILDREN In Need is back and this time Pudsey Bear has been spotted in south Cumbria meeting with school pupils and families as part of a week long charity challenge.

Pudsey and the BBC North West team are working together to raise funds for Children in Need by pushing a special red sofa across south Cumbria into Manchester and other areas in the north west.

The team began their adventure in Kendal yesterday morning and travelled to a number of schools in the town and headed to Staveley and Windermere before finishing at the Glebe in Bowness.

Setting off at 9am from the heart of the town Pudsey was accompanied by BBC North West Tonight presenters, Roger Johnson, Annabel Tiffen and Owain Wyn Evans.

Children in Need supports more than 2,600 projects across the country including Sight Advice South Lakes, an organisation which provides a variety of services to support visually impaired people in the area.

And so Pudsey and the team paid a visit to the organisation to meet the children who use the service and who have also benefitted from the charity.

“Children in Need has been supporting us for the past ten years,” said Sight Advice South Lakes service manager Amy Pearman.

“We wouldn’t be able to put together exciting activities for the children without the charity.”

Mum Natalie Zeslaw, and her two children Harvey and Ashton, who has Nystagmus, a condition of involuntary eye movement which could result in reduced vision, were invited to meet Pudsey.

“It’s been great,” she said. “My son has been talking about meeting Pudsey non-stop for the past couple of weeks, so it’s lovely for them to actually meet him.”

After their visit in Kendal BBC North West and Pudsey pushed the little red sofa across the town and ventured into Windermere.

Unfortunately for Pudsey and his parade, the finish in Bowness was a bit a of a washout, with the rain keeping many people away.

However, those who did brave the elements were rewarded with front-row seats as the yellow bear checked-in at his final stop, with some children having waited from the end of school. The team will set off from Blackburn Cathedral tomorrow in a bid to reach Preston.