Looking into the future

12:51pm Wednesday 5th March 2008

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THIS is the first exciting glimpse of how The Press Guardian Angels Appeal's new state-of-the-art high dependency unit for children will look.

Only two-and-a-half years after we launched our appeal to bring this life-saving unit to York Hospital, building work is about to get under way.

Thanks to the generous support of our readers, we have now raised £230,000 towards our £300,000 target.

Today, staff on the children's ward spoke of their pride that what started as a pipe dream had nearly become reality.

York Hospital will be one of the first district general hospitals in the UK to boast such a specialised unit, and the children's ward has been flooded with phone calls from hospital managers wanting to find out more.

Ward matron Jill Crampton said: "We have become a beacon for the rest of the country to follow.

"We are going to have something in York that every other district general hospital in the country would love."

Builders are due to start work on the unit in April and it is hoped the new facilities will be up and running as early as this summer. Jill said: "We are so excited. Everybody who has supported the appeal will soon be able to see that all their efforts have been worthwhile.

"To know that we are going to be a champion for this type of work makes me feel very proud. As a ward matron, it is a dream come true."

York mum Val Wright, who has been a passionate supporter of our appeal since the death of her five-year-old daughter Megan, said she was delighted that other children would soon be able to benefit from the new unit.

Megan, of Acomb, suffered from epilepsy, cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease and was a regular patient on the children's ward.

A collection at her funeral raised £400 for our appeal, and her parents also donated £300 from their daughter's bank account.

Val said: "It's absolutely brilliant that work is about to begin. We will always be able to think that a little part of Megan was in that."

But with £70,000 to go until we reach our target, fundraising for The Press Guardian Angels Appeal must not stop here.

Editor of The Press Kevin Booth said: "It's fantastic news that we're now ready to start building the new unit.

"We're on the home straight and it's all down to the generosity of our readers that we've come this far.

"However, we now need one final push to bring in the last £70,000 and we hope everybody in York will get behind us."

Generous readers

READERS of The Press have proved they are not short of imagination when it comes to fundraising for our appeal.

Since the launch of The Press Guardian Angels Appeal on October 10, 2005, generous readers have come up with hundreds of fundraising ideas to keep donations flooding into our offices in Walmgate, York.

Daring staff at Happy Jays nursery, in Clifton Moor, have posed for a naked calendar and brave workers at Leaping Lizards pet shop, in Heworth, have devoured worms, locusts and rat tails.

Lisa Addinall, of Newton-on-Ouse, wore her wedding dress to Tesco, while 12-year-old Jenny Bullock, of Holme-on-Spalding Moor, sold all her toys to help other children.

York band Comfort Zone has released a single dedicated to our appeal and nifty knitters from the Paradise Day Centre, in Easingwold, auctioned off a 9ft 1in long scarf after going on a sponsored knit.

Roosters Brewery, in Knaresborough, sold a limited edition Guardian Angel beer for our appeal and a group of party-goers, led by Brenda Jackson, of Clifton, dressed up as cartoon characters for a bar crawl through York. Dozens of readers have handed over their birthday money to the appeal and workers around the city have sacrificed a day's wages to help the cause.

The biggest boost to date came from Yorkshire's Hospital Heartbeat Appeal, which in May last year donated £23,000 to buy two vital signs monitors for the new unit.

How will the unit work?

Your money will fund two life- saving high-dependency rooms with new, specialised equipment.

The unit will be the first of its kind in the region that can deal with youngsters arriving as emergencies.

These children could be suffering from illnesses including meningitis, septicemia, breathing difficulties, viral chest infections, obstructions of the voice box, severe asthma, bronchiolitis, convulsions or coma and physical injury.

A specialist nurse will care solely for these high-dependency children and other staff will be trained to get the most out of the improvements.

Children will have immediate access to the right treatment instead of waiting for ventilators and monitors to be taken from other patients.

It will also mean many more youngsters can be treated in York rather than having to be transferred further afield, to cities like Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.

How you can help the appeal

IF you are holding a charity event, let us know about it and we can publicise it in The Press, to make sure as many people as possible support your efforts.

Phone Nicola Fifield on 01904 653051 or email nicola.fifield@thepress.co.uk. You can also find a section on Guardian Angels on our home page, under news' and campaigns and appeals'.

There you'll find a downloadable poster which you can customize to generate more publicity, and a sponsorship form.

If you want to make a donation, send cheques or postal orders made out to The Press Guardian Angels appeal, to Guardian Angels, The Press, 76/86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN. Please do not send cash and please do not send donations to the hospital direct.