An Old Girl could win the chance to pitch to Richard Branson after designing a toy to connect families.

Hannah Sage, who left HMSG five years ago to start a design technology degree at Loughborough University, has created a very clever lion called Milo.

The cute invention, which Hannah designed as part of her final year project at university, is an interactive way for youngsters to stay in touch with absent loved ones using video messages.

Now, the 23-year-old has entered the toy into the Virgin Media Business Voom 2016 competition, hoping for support to take the product to market.

Keen to keep in contact with her old school, Hannah came to HMSG on Tuesday, May 10, to speak to Year 12 as they embark on their UCAS journey to apply to university.

Rachel Rees, Head of Year 12 at HMSG, said: “Hannah spoke about her university experience and how she got to where she is today.

“She inspired pupils by talking about her passion for what she does and her new invention.”

Milo is specifically designed with young children from military families in mind.

A clue is displayed on the lion’s screen and the child then begins a treasure hunt to find a token hidden in the house which is then placed in a slot on Milo’s base.

The token plays a message from the family member and the child can then record a reply. This can then be repeated over coming days or weeks as there are 24 tokens provided.

Adults can view their child’s reply video on the Milo website.

Hannah said: “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.

“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.”

The treasure hunt aspect stems from Hannah’s own childhood experience, 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 added.

The innovative designer needs to be in the Virgin competition’s top 80 places to win the chance to pitch to Richard Branson – and she now sits in 81st position.

Click here to vote for her and follow this link to visit Milo’s website.