A COMMUNITY family magazine set up by two County Durham mothers is to quadruple circulation after gaining backing from celebrities.

Since being set up a year ago, Get Set Kids now distributes 10,000 copies into schools, leisure centres and libraries across South-West Durham, and demand is increasingly outstripping supply.

The magazine, which has recently received endorsement from celebrity chef and children’s healthy eating champion Jamie Oliver, is now looking to increase distribution to 40,000 to allow it to cover more of County Durham.

Get Set Kids – also online at getsetkids.co.uk – was set up by mother-of-two Ally Mendelsohn and Emma Ord, a mother-of-three, in response to what they saw as a gap in the market for a publication combining listings, reviews and features about activities for children.

Neither had a background in the magazine or publishing industry – Ms Mendelsohn is a medical secretary, and Ms Ord has a degree in teaching – but decided to launch the magazine after realising there was nothing of its kind for parents in the area.

Since then, they have received the backing of TV chef Oliver, as well as celebrities including vocal coaches David and Carrie Grant from BBC’s Fame Academy, and have secured support from Durham County Council. All have praised the magazine’s aims, and the womens’ dedication to it.

“We came up with the idea while having a cup of coffee one day, and it’s really taken off. We’d never done anything like this before but really fancied giving it a try, so we went for it,” said Ms Mendelsohn.

“The content is based around things we know as parents that we’d like to read and information we know we’d find useful, which is probably why it’s become as popular as it has.

“We already have a distribution of 10,000 and we have got some really big celebrities involved, so it’s going really well. We want to increase that to 40,000, which I don’t think is too far into the future, as the demand is definitely there.

“We’re very passionate about what we do and it’s real a challenge, but we are pleased to have such support.

“We want to be regarded as the community’s magazine, so we can give something back to the community we live in, and by growing our distribution area, we hope we can target even more parents and children.”