An enterprising couple has entered an ambitious contest to help their fledgling business boom.

Longwood-based Marcus and Joanne Wilson, who own Little Fingers Organic Baby Food, have entered into the challenging Pitch to Rich competition created by Richard Branson's Virgin Media Business, which will give them the chance to win a share of £1million.

But to do it, they are calling on the help of people from the area to vote for them so that they can progress to the next round.

If successful, they hope it will enable them to expand their business, which they created to educate parents about the principles of baby-led weaning and out of a desire to produce healthy baby finger food.

Marcus and Joanne, who are both 38 and live in Parkwood Court, set up the company following the birth of their first son, Bobby, three years ago.

Marcus, who trained as a chef, said: “We both went back to working full time and found that there were a lack of ready made, healthy and organic options for parents who wanted to feed their children based on the baby-led weaning method.

“The method is about letting children feed themselves by putting food on their table and enabling them to pick it up.

“We believed that it would help Bobby and other babies develop their biting and chewing technique at their own pace and encourage them to try out new textures and flavours.

“So we started to make finger food that could be eaten for meals and started to sell them from our house– fortunately it has taken off.

“Bobby and his younger brother Daniel aren’t picky about their food at all and we believe this method is the reason why.”

So far, they sell 16 different products both to local farm shops and direct to customers from around the North East.

Marcus said: “I quit my job to give all my attention to the company and we spend our evenings and weekends making the food, which is hard work but we both really enjoy it.

“We would love to be able to expand and take on new staff and would be very grateful if people could back us through our Pitch to Rich campaign.

“It would be fantastic if we got to pitch our business to Richard Branson himself.

“We’re also hoping to take our products down to a large organic event in London, so it’s an exciting time for us.”

Click here to vote for them.