AFTER bringing up five daughters and helping out with her ten grandchildren, pensioner Doreen Kett has become one of the country's first Childcare Champions.

The energetic 70-year-old is one of six people receiving the award from Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who recently became a father, at a Downing Street reception today.

She was nominated for her tireless work with children on the Woodhouse Close Estate in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, which is listed as one of the sixth most deprived estates in the UK.

Mrs Kett helps at a Wednesday afternoon Mother and Toddler Group as well as chairing the estate's residents' association.

Carol Newsom, Wear Valley SureStart programme manager, said in her nomination: "To see and listen to her is an inspiration.

"She helps parents and carers so that children in the toddler groups get a better deal.

"She is a very active community member who listens to the wants and needs of parents, translating this information so that all of the right family support services are put in place during school holidays, evenings and weekends."

Mrs Kett will travel to London today determined to tell Mr Brown about efforts to improve the lives of Woodhouse Close families.

She said: "I've always had empathy with children. I look for the best in them and try to bring it out because they are our future. I've just enjoyed every minute of it."

Childcare Champions Awards were established by the Daycare Trust and recognise parents who have campaigned for better childcare in their community.

They were set up in memory of Bernard Misrahi, a lifelong campaigner and former trustee of the Daycare Trust, who died last year.