A TALENTED young artist’s dinosaur design has been chosen as the new mascot for Dorset County Hospital’s children’s services.

Prince of Wales First School pupil Mia Briant came up with Duncan the Dorset Dinosaur to win a competition to design the mascot.

Staff from children’s services are working on some new pages for the hospital’s website and wanted to create a friendly mascot to feature on their information for youngsters.

They challenged local schoolchildren to design a suitable character and it was Mia’s creation that was chosen as the pick of the bunch.

Her design will now be developed by a graphic designer for use on the website and patient literature.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Phil Parslow said the high standard of entries meant the judges had a tough time choosing the winner.

He said: “We had some fantastic entries with great ideas for our mascot.

“We felt that Duncan the Dorset Dinosaur was bright and cheery and will appeal to both boys and girls.

“He also ties in well with our Jurassic Coast location.

“Mia did a brilliant job and we are really looking forward to incorporating Duncan into the design of our new web pages.”

There was more success for the Prince of Wales First School as designs by Alexandra Allford and Beth Ellis saw them claim joint third prize in the competition.

Brett Chainey from Broadwindsor Primary School was awarded second place.