Last updated 13:51, Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Harriet will never remember the day it all began. But this little girl is the inspiration for a dream.

Tristan-Paul McGee, left and son Tristan-Sean McGee with niece Harriet, the inspiration for the book Oops Hari!

The dream belongs to her uncle and her grandfather, who are keen to share it with the world.

They are working together to see that Harriet grows up safe and well, and they hope that millions of other children will enjoy the same protection.

And they have a powerful ally... a little green elephant called Hari.

The dream began two years ago. Uncle – Tristan-Sean McGee – and grandad – Tristan-Paul McGee – were driving along. Harriet, then just a baby, now approaching her fourth birthday, was in the back.

“We were chatting away, discussing Harriet, and we got onto her safety,” says Tristan-Sean, 33. “How is she going to learn to be safe in her earliest years? How are we going to educate her?”

The answer was Hari the elephant. Hari is the star of a new book which aims to teach children about safety. The two Tristans, who live near Penrith, hope it will be the first of many on a variety of themes.

The book, Oops Hari!, is published next week. It looks at the risk of accidents in the home and the world outside. Hazards are everywhere: a mug of hot tea, an electrical lead waiting to be tripped over, scalding water in the bathroom...

Won’t children be frightened by all this danger? Definitely not, insists Tristan-Sean. Theirs is a serious message wrapped up in a bright, colourful, fun world.

“The idea is that when a child recognises a hazard in the book they say ‘Oops Hari!’ We don’t want children to be afraid of everything around them and neither do parents.

“We are not trying to wrap children in cotton wool. It’s about helping them to accurately assess risk. There’s a boiling kettle there. If it’s boiling, don’t go near it. If it’s not boiling there’s not a problem.”

Adds his father: “Hari’s adventures are to be enjoyed. We love seeing children enjoy themselves. I love that sound of children playing and laughing.

“Hari is a bumbling elephant with friends like Moe the mouse who help him spot danger. Hari is not gender-specific. We didn’t want to make this a human character. It wouldn’t be as much fun. But he and his friends have human eyes.

“Everything in Hari’s world will come to life, like pans and kettles. The cars are called Mr Screech and Mr Bump. The cars aren’t angry as long as Hari respects what they do.”

So much for the fun – now for the serious message. “Every year in the UK hundreds of thousands of children suffer injuries and trauma in preventable accidents,” says Tristan-Paul. “Universally millions of children suffer accidental injury every year. Blessed with Harriet, my first grandchild, I thought if we could save one life or prevent one disfiguring incident and avoid the pain I note constantly in my law practice this would be a worthwhile enterprise.”

His law practice... a twist in this tale is that both these advocates of safety have a background in risk.

Tristan-Paul, 59, is a personal injury barrister and his son was an army major before leaving a month ago to concentrate on Hari.

“It wasn’t such a hard decision,” explains Tristan-Sean. “I’ve always loved the army. But look at what we can achieve here.”

Having served in Iraq and Afghanistan he had to manage risk every day just to stay alive. In Sierra Leone he saw children whose arms and legs had been blown off by mines.

But children don’t have to be in a war zone to die or suffer serious injury. Tristan-Paul long ago lost count of the number of tragedies which have crossed his desk in this part of the world. One recent case involved a boy who was seriously injured when he ran into the road and was hit by a bus.

The hope is that Hari the elephant will help not only Harriet but children across the UK and worldwide who might be on the verge of running into danger.

Turning hope into reality has become a full-time job for Tristan-Sean since leaving the army after 12 years.

During time off in the past couple of years he has travelled to America, Australia and Hong Kong to research accidental injuries, as well as the book and games markets. The Tristans have developed a games console in which children can warn Hari of lurking hazards. One day there might even be an animated TV series.

“We want to put Hari across all different mediums,” says Tristan-Sean. “How do you reach everyone? Some children like books. Some like games. It has to be all-inclusive. All children need to learn about safety.”

Initially they will concentrate on the books. They would like to see Hari become a mascot for child safety awareness, as successful as the Green Cross Code Man was for road safety.

Father and son have even visited the real-life Green Cross Code Man, actor Dave Prowse, to mine his thoughts.

“The effect that campaign had was quite extraordinary,” says Tristan-Sean. “In its first two months it reduced child road accidents by 40 per cent.

“There have been government safety campaigns before but each one has concentrated on one area, such as road safety. There’s been nothing like this that looks at every aspect.

“We’ve followed a lot of research and it shows that if you get the safety message out to a child aged three to six it is there for life. The key is repetition.

“Children don’t want to think they’re always being taught. Every time parents say to their child ‘Don’t do that’ it becomes a discipline issue. ‘Don’t run up the stairs’: They run up the stairs.

“They want it to be fun. You have to drop things in subtly. A lot of it’s subconscious. On the beach they’re wearing armbands and carrying suncream.”

The pair’s substantial investment in time and money has included forming focus groups of parents and teachers in Cumbria and elsewhere in the country.

Their lack of writing experience made it difficult to find a publisher, so they created Hari Books and brought in acclaimed children’s author Nicholas Halliday to bring their vision to life with his words and pictures.

Now they need the world to know about Hari. But first, Cumbria.

The Tristans have arranged for the book to be read in some local nursery schools; the first of many, they hope. Their MP David Maclean supports their idea and is keen to see Hari on the school curriculum.

The games console and a website are ready to roll. If things go according to plan some of the proceeds will go to children’s charities.

Exciting times, but this uncle and grandfather will never lose sight of why they first dreamed their dream.

“Harriet really is the most special little thing to us,” says Tristan-Sean. “She often refers to Hari. She’ll say ‘I’ve told Hari not to run up and down the stairs’. If she does something silly you say ‘What would Hari do?’ She goes ‘Oh!’

“If we can prevent one accident or save one life it would be fantastic. But we can do so much more than that.”

Oops Hari will be available in bookshops from Tuesday or from www.harisworld.com