A DAD-OF-TWO who designed a phone application to help parents find their lost children on holiday is waiting to hear if he’s secured up to £100,000 to get the idea off the ground.

Paul Nunn, 44, of Dickenson Road, Colchester, is one of ten finalists in a competition run by entrepreneur and businessman, Philip Miller.

His entry was chosen from more than 160 to face a specially chosen Dragons’ Den-style panel.

If his idea is judged the best, he will get up to £100,000 to develop it.

Mr Nunn, who has children, aged six and two, came up with the Beach Baby App and tag, which combines a smartphone application with an electronic tagging device.

The graphic designer said: “It’s every parent’s nightmare – you are on holiday and suddenly notice your toddler is missing.

“The idea is the tag is worn by the child and the application displays a map showing the location of the child, and how far away they are from the parent.

“It then accesses contact details of the local emergency services and forwards recent images of the missing child.”

Mr Miller is executive chairman and owner of the Stockvale Group, which owns Adventure Island in Southend and the Adventure Radio Group.

He heads the Who Wants to be a Miller on Air? competition panel.

Mr Nunn must wait until March 11 to find out if he has won the life-changing prize.

He said: “It was hard pitching to the panel, because one of them did not even own a mobile phone, and the whole idea is based around people having a phone.”

The competition is to be featured on Southend Radio 105.1 and Chelmsford Radio 107.7, from Monday.