A PARENTING website and its founder are both bidding for glory in The Press Business Awards.

Yorkmumbler.com was set up a year ago after owner Emily Pickard saw a huge gap in the market for a trusted ‘one-stop’ hub of information for local mums and dads.

The venture has been entered in the New Business category of our awards, while Mrs Pickard is in the running Business Personality of the Year.

She says: “I set up a Facebook group when I fell pregnant with my first daughter because, having only lived in York for ten years, I didn’t know all it had to offer for young families and, to be honest, I wanted to make a few mummy friends.

“I set up York Mumbler on Facebook and invited a few friends to join - before I knew it there were thousands of members and today there are over 10,000.

“The group was, and still is, about support, advice and tips for all parenting-related issues and questions, from ‘how can I get my toddler to eat more veg?’ to ‘why isn’t my baby sleeping through the night?’ and ‘where are the best classes and playgroups to visit?’.

Mrs Pickard noticed the same questions were repeated, but though other ‘mumblers’ responded the questions and answers got lost. “So I set up yorkmumbler.com to house this. It is a wealth of local information - all relevant to parents.

“A vast amount of research went into finding the information for each of the categories in there, including days out, weekly classes and playgroups, trusted trades, events calendar, school holidays and childcare providers to name just a few.

“It was essential to me that it was a trusted resource - so recommendations from other parents were key to the success.”

She says: “The way I have been described by others is tenacious, loyal, caring, passionate and very organised - a must for my business.

“One of my main motivations for doing it is that I get so many personal messages from individuals who talk about it as a ‘lifeline’. The community I have put together really helps to support people at the time when they need it most and that is something I am immensely proud of.”