A MONMOUTH Army daughter has designed a toy to connect families and deployed soldiers.

Hannah Sage, a product design graduate, created the new toy ‘Milo’, which connects military families with deployed personnel using weekly video messages. Hannah graduated from Loughborough University this summer and will be taking her concept to the Inventors Workshop on 22nd September in the hope of accessing the expertise and funding needed to put Milo into production and subsequently on sale.

Milo is a toy lion featuring technology that allows families to stay in touch. Before a soldier is deployed, he or she hides 24 tokens – one a week for a six-month tour – around the family home. Each week, the family receives a clue on Milo’s screen to help them find one of the tokens. Once it’s been located, they simply place it in Milo’s base unit to unlock the video. They can then record and send a video message back to the soldier.

“Military personnel can’t currently use video messaging tools, such as Skype or FaceTime, whilst on deployment due to bandwidth limitations and security restrictions, so families can go for months without seeing their loved ones’ faces,” she said.

“I know how hard this can be – my father has been in the army all his life and my sister’s boyfriend has been on tour in Afghanistan – so I wanted to create a product that would help.

“Milo solves this problem in an enjoyable, engaging and interactive way that involves the whole family. The weekly activity of searching for and then watching videos together as a family creates a regular routine, which is really important for young children. It also builds excitement and anticipation for each week’s video and lets children count down the weeks until the deployed parent’s return home.”

The treasure hunt aspect stems from Hannah’s own childhood experience in Wales, when her mother used to leave notes in her suitcase whenever she went away.

“I’d still be finding these little notes when I got back. I always remember how fun that was and I still have many of the notes now because they were special to me.”

Hannah also explained why Milo is a lion: “Partly because animals appeal to young children, but also because a lion symbolises bravery and Britain, which is the epitome of the military family in the UK.”

Hannah Sage is one of many toy inventors with amazing ideas attending the Inventors Workshop on 22nd September, where she will access life-changing pitch sessions with some of the world’s leading toy companies and pick up top tips and advice for taking her business forward. Tickets to the Inventors Workshop are on sale now for just £129 from http://www.inventorsworkshopevent.com/buy-tickets/