It's an early birthday celebration for little Marcus Thompson who has been announced as the winner of Kids Galore 2010.

The cute toddler, who will be two next month, received a cheque for £1,725 during a presentation ceremony at Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre, sponsors of the competition.

All 12 finalists and their families were there to see who had finally been picked as the champion from around 750 children who entered the popular competition.

Thousands of votes poured in and the top three in each age group made it to the final - then it was the job of the judges to choose the group winner and the overall winner of the contest.

It was a tough choice but Marcus, who lives in Gillingham, got the nod ahead of fellow group winners Faith Sharp, Colin Whitman and Eva McIntyre.

Kids Galore success runs in the Thompson family - big sister Violet, who has just turned three, was a group winner in 2008.

Proud mum and dad Liza and Daniel were delighted. Liza said: "We love Kids Galore and get everyone involved. We hoped Marcus might win his group, like Violet did, but never expected him to win the whole competition."

Centre manager Mark Rumfitt said: "I’m delighted with how the competition has gone this year. It is a really nice community event for us to get involved in."

No-one went away empty handed from the competition. The three group winners received £475 and the eight other finalists each got £75.