Tears of joy as Australian Doll Hospital restores childhood memories

In an age of mass-produced plastic dolls, few doll hospitals around the world have survived, the owners said.

"We're one of the last ones that does everything, when it comes to dolls, there's very few that are capable of that sort of work," said Geoff Chapman, 67 and "surgeon-in-chief" at the family-run business his father started more than a century ago.

Since then, the Doll Hospital has restored more than three million dolls, teddy bears, rocking horses and wheeled toys for Australian and New Zealand children.

'we had clowns as big as a person, and a 12-foot (4m) crocodile - plush - not real," Chapman joked, noting that "the most common problem usually is the hair and the eyes".

One of the pleasures of working at the hospital is seeing customers' reactions when they collect their prized possession.

"It's both men and women, obviously more women are getting dolls and teddies repaired, but there's quite a few men attached to teddy bears too,"

parts is a big part of the work carried out, hair transplants also are high on the list.

"I think there were lots of budding hairdressers that took to their dolls and thought it was going to grow back. Well it didn't grow back, did it?" Chapman laughed.