THE family of tragic toddler Joshua Massey-Hodgkinson have gone national with their campaign for justice -- and appear to have attracted their first celebrity backer in the process.

Joshua's parents, Emma Massey and Simon Hodgkinson, along with his grandmother Cathy Massey, all of Clitheroe, appeared on ITV1's This Morning yesterday to mark the launch of their campaign with the Evening Telegraph.

And the family say Bruce Jones, who plays Les Battersby on Coronation Street, said he would consider helping.

Joshua, who lived with his parents in St Paul's Terrace, Clitheroe, died at the home of his registered childminder Wendy Barlow, in Eightacre Avenue, Sabden, last April.

The mother-of-three, who had admitted having a binge drinking problem before getting her childminding registration, couldn't prevent him drowning in her bath in the early hours.

Barlow, formerly from Accrington, is now serving a three-year jail term for his manslaughter after pleading guilty at Preston Crown Court last month.

It has since transpired that Barlow was not registered to look after children at night -- but Josh's parents were not warned about that or her drinking problem.

The Justice for Joshua campaign has four main aims:

l Better regulation to ban people with serious problems, such as binge drinking, from becoming childminders

l Better training to put childminders on a level with nursery nurses, rather than just a one or two-day course as it is now

l Better information, making all terms and conditions of registration easily available from Ofsted for parents

l Better knowledge for parents, encouraging them to ask questions about conditions of registration as a result of knowing about Joshua's case.

In an interview on This Morning with hosts Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton, the family urged people to inspect the registrations of childminders.

Emma said: "I hope that by going on TV we've now reached a lot of people who didn't know what happened to Joshua.

"We don't want sympathy, we want to make sure Joshua's case is highlighted and that we stop this happening again in the future.

It was very nerve-racking but everyone was very good to us."

Emma added: "Bruce Jones, who plays Les Battersby, talked to us before the show as he was there to be interviewed as well.

"He seemed really keen to help us and we've said we'll write to him. It's all going very well at the moment."