Action Medical Research is a UK-wide charity funding vital research to help sick and disabled babies and children. We fight for answers that can lead to cures, treatments and medical breakthroughs for some of the toughest fights our children face. Since we began in 1952, we have been funding medical breakthroughs and almost everyone has been touched in some way by our groundbreaking work - like the first polio vaccines in the UK, ultrasound in pregnancy and the rubella vaccine. Today, we continue to find and fund the very best medical research to help stop the suffering of babies and children caused by disease and disability. Did you know we are also Paddington Bear’s favourite UK charity? He has been our official mascot since 1976, when our founder Duncan Guthrie met Paddington’s creator Michael Bond.