Mara Soriano says her knees buckled as a two Good Samaritans handed her a bag containing a brown teddy bear in a red-and-white dress and white jacket.

For the past four days Soriano has walked up and down Vancouver alleyways, looked under dumpsters, put up posters and responded to every email and tweet that she thought could lead her back to a teddy bear that carried her late mother's voice.

Last night she sobbed with joy when she was reunited with the bear.

The bear was stolen while she was moving to a new apartment on Friday, and Soriano put out a call for it on social media that soon went viral. Celebrities including Ryan Reynolds and George Stroumboulopoulos each promised rewards for its return.

Marilyn Soriano was diagnosed with cancer about 10 years ago when Mara was 18 and died last June.

She gave her daughter the bear in December 2017.

It was put together at Build-A-Bear and featured glasses and a jacket like the ones she used to wear.

Soriano says she got an email last night from someone who said they had the bear and wanted to return it to her and met up with two people at a safe location.

She says the bear is in perfect condition.

When she gets married next summer, Soriano says the bear will have a special seat at the front where her mom would have been.

But for the next few days, she's going to carry the bear around and planned to go to sleep with it last night.