IT is a message which is close to an eight-year-old girl's heart - and now her dream will be immortalised on her favourite sweets for everyone to see.

Russell Claydon

IT is a message which is close to an eight-year-old girl's heart - and now her dream will be immortalised on her favourite sweets for everyone to see.

For generations, opening a packet of Love Hearts has been about much more than just satisfying a sweet tooth - the mushy messages on each one made them a token of love and affection.

And now the taste of the sherbet-like treats will be all the more sweeter for Eloise King, from Lowestoft, after her mother won her a competition to have her name emblazoned across them.

The message “Eloise Mermaid” will now be passed around the playground along with classic slogans like “Dream Girl”, “Cuddle Me” and “Cutie Pie”.

Eloise, who is autistic, has always told her mother she wanted to grow up to be a mermaid and the Roman Hill Primary School pupil is delighted her dream will be featured on the fizzy sweets as part of the 80th birthday celebrations of the sweets' maker Swizzels Matlow.

Her mother, Sarah Elson, 28, of Stanford Street, Lowestoft, entered a nationwide competition shortly after Christmas to have her daughter's name emblazoned on a Love Heart, but never thought she would be one of the 10 winners.

Mrs Elson, who also has two younger sons, Ethan, four, and Hayden, two, said: “I came across a competition online that caught my eye as it was for her favourite sweet.

“She is autistic and always says when she grows up she wants to be a mermaid so I wrote 'Eloise Mermaid' as a suggestion for the sweets.

“I entered for her because she has had a tough time struggling on a day-to-day basis with school because of her condition so I thought this was something a bit light-hearted that she would enjoy and she was really pleased and loves it.

“She did not know I had entered so it was a nice surprise.”

The personalised Love Hearts will now go into production, with the new sweets set to hit the shelves by September and Mrs Elson said her daughter could not wait.

She added: “We have been given some specially made ones already - I do not know if she actually will want to eat the ones with her name on them.”

LOVE HEARTS FACTFILE:

The sweets were launched in 1956 and have since appeared on products as diverse as curtains to cosmetics and have featured everywhere from the former Millennium Dome to a Kate Nash music video.

Their famous love-related messages have evolved over the decades in line with linguistic trends. Original captions from the 1950s, such as 'Sexy Sue', 'Dream Girl', 'Be Gay' and 'Cutie Pie', evolved into 21st century vernacular such as 'Text Me', 'Doh' and 'Luv You 24/7'.

Swizzels Matlow make Love Hearts from their base in New Mills, Derbyshire, where the family-owned business has been running since 1928. Their product list also includes Drumsticks, New Refreshers, Rainbow Drops and Parma Violets.

The 10 messages that will be added to Love Hearts as part of the cofectionary maker's 80th birthday celebrations are: Mermaid Eloise, Joyful Jo, Happy Harry, Heart Baby, Kin of U Home, Me Julie Best Mum, Juicy Jessie, I Luv Alan, Granny P, Think Pink.