THE Lyme Regis mum who has been labelled the JK Rowling of teddy bears has vowed to help good causes in the town with her newfound wealth.

Rikey Austin, who runs Withy Bears in Church Street with her bearmaking partner Jo Farmer, says she will help the town museum and the Woodroffe School among others, if she can.

Rikey and Jo, from Taunton, hit the headlines in February when their Alice's Bear Shop toys were picked up by the world's leading bear manufacturers - Russ.

Since then the pair have travelled the world with the Russ PR machine, appearing on television in Paris, visiting factories in Korea, and signing books in Australia.

Next month they will sign copies of their bears and books at Harrods in London.

The Alice's Bear Shop series has struck a chord with children all over the world and the pair now have 12 of their bears in production plus a raft of add-ons, including books, stationery, wrapping paper and even an animated series in the pipeline.

But Rikey, who still lives in a small house with her three sons and her husband in Lyme Regis says she won't let her newfound wealth go to her head. She and Jo say they don't even know how much the cheque, when they receive it, will be.

"We've had the opportunity to ask, but we haven't," says Rikey. "We just know it will change our lives."

Rikey says she just wants to be able to buy a house with a garden for her family and has vowed to help the art department at Woodroffe School and the museum if she can.

Many of the bears in the series, which Rikey wrote for her son Leon, are named after places in Lyme Regis, like Woodroffe and Cobby.