Thank you wvmarle and Steve for the recommendations, I shall look into it, particularly the MOSFET advised!
Forgive me Grumpy_Mike, it was not intentional. I was unsure as to what you mean by an " external " pull up resistor and as to how/where this would be wired in. Are you suggesting in run in parallel with the button?
Again I apologise if I seem to miss anything obvious as i'm currently learning about the Arduino world and electrical components.
Thank you for all your patience, I greatly appreciate it!