DRAGON’S Den star Deborah Meaden is offering a day of her business expertise to one lucky Swindon firm.

The 51-year-old, who made her multi-million pound fortune in the leisure and retail industry, is part of the NSPCCs Dragon’s Challenge which launches at the Old Bank, in Old Town, tonight.

It will see up to 20 of the town’s firms aiming to raise a minimum of £5,000 each over a period of six months. The business which generates the most money from their fundraising exploits will be the lucky winner.

Funds have already been earmarked to expand the south west ChildLine base, which serves Swindon.

Last night Somerset-based Deborah, who is the chairwoman of the Child’s Voice Appeal for the south west, told the Swindon Advertiser: “The idea is to stimulate businesses to get involved in the challenge by way of coming up with fundraising ideas.

“Set yourself a target of raising at least £5,000 and we’ll run a league table in the Swindon Advertiser and tell everyone about all of the fantastic work you’re doing, the ideas you’re coming up with and the money you’re raising.

“It creates a really good feel-good factor all around and benefits the Child’s Voice Appeal, which is an extremely important appeal.”

Deborah who, while growing up, used to go shopping in Swindon with fellow pupils from Trowbridge High School, said the winning business will benefit hugely from her expertise.

“I’m intending to make a difference to their business,” she said.

“I suspect most of these people are going to have an idea of the areas they’re interested in me becoming involved in.

“They might have a particular issue that they’re getting stuck on – all businesses have that. They go through everything and think I don’t know what to do about this, so maybe I can help unblock something there.

“Maybe they aren’t sure what the issue is. I’m pretty good at quickly getting to grips at what’s important for the business.

“Maybe they just want me to help them motivate the team in some way or they have a particular project on and they want me to help them with that.

“But to be honest, I’m at their disposal for them to do what they think is right for the business.”

Deborah said she is inundated with about 100 applications a week for charitable donations when Dragon’s Den is showing on the BBC.

“The way I deal with that is that I have a charity plan and decide what I want to do either in the next six months or the next year or three years,” she said.

“I was specifically looking to put something back into a region which has been very good to me.

“Although I don’t have children, I’ve worked in the holiday park industry so I was always surrounded by families and children.

“I saw some of the stresses and strains that those families and children go through. When the NSPCC approached me about chairing the appeal it was something I wanted to find out more about.”

The businesswoman, who is married to Paul, said the children’s charity makes a huge difference to people’s lives.

“Now is absolutely the right time to get engaged,” she said. “In these very tough times it’s very easy to forget other people’s issues.

“But I think it’s a brilliant time. It’s a good way to get people in your team motivated, galvanised, focused and making a difference to other people’s lives.

“As a business it’s a great thing to be doing when people are worried about their jobs or get a bit depressed. So to then give people a common goal and say let’s go for it and have some fun is great.”

Exeter piloted the first successful Dragon’s Challenge in September last year. Now Swindon is set to raise thousands of pounds for the organisation.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “The charity benefits from a cash injection of a minimum of £100,000 towards the appeal and a very cost-effective use of Deborah Meaden’s precious time.”

The Dragon’s Challenge will be launched tonight at The Old Bank in Wood Street, Old Town from 6.45pm.