Jo Ashburner is one of the United Kingdom's most lauded businesswomen thanks to the success of her innovative children's comforter Noonoo.

But none of it would have happened were it not for her toddler son Zak.

Jo created the Noonoo comforter for Zak a couple of years ago when he was just three-years-old; hand-felting a small lambswool blanket for him to adopt as his beloved "blanky".

To make the comforter more interesting she added tags he could grip and tug at and play with and added pictures of animals, insects and houses that Zak had drawn.

Zak loved it and so, it seems, did the rest of the UK, Us and Scandinavia.

During the two short years since Jo started making Noonoo commercially she has won several major awards, and was last year named the UK National Businesswoman of the Year.

For Jo, the point of the product was not to win awards, but to create something young children have wanted for generations.

'Babies and small children often develop an attachment to something they can snuggle up to for comfort and security - usually subjecting the object of their attention to a very primitive form of loving - a mixture of affectionate caressing and destructive attack,' Jo said.

'Individual developmental milestones of babies and infants build one on the other, once their own personal security platform has been established.

'Through development of the Noonoo brand, the quality handmade comfort blankets and three dimensional playthings, I have finally been able to offer something constructive to children of my son's age - something that they identify with to reassure them throughout their personal exploration of life during those most important first formative years.'

Now Noonoo has gone international and the small workshop Jo and a few employees used to hand-make the Noonoo products has given way to a bigger manufacturing operation in South East Asia. However, Jo has held on to her original idea of a hand-made, ethical product in the new operation.

Noonoo wholeheartedly supports and actively practices ethical manufacturing policies to make a positive contribution to the local community in Ho Chi Minh by guaranteeing good pay and safe and happy working conditions for staff.