MORE than £4,000 hit the coffers of the Guardian Angels fund this week – money that will go towards a new mobile intensive care cot for babies.

The transfer pod will be used to transport critically-ill babies via ambulance from York to hospitals in cities such as Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.

The money was raised by father-of-four Roger Kingston, who held a curry night at the Jinnah restaurant in Flaxton.

The 42-year-old decided to organise the evening to raise funds for the Guardian Angels charity after his own son, Lawrence, came terrifyingly close to death.

When he was only two days old, Lawrence had to be transferred to Leeds General Infirmary suffering from a life-threatening infection.

He was unable to stay in York because at the time the new Guardian Angels high- dependency unit was not up and running.

Today, Lawrence is a happy and healthy one year old and Roger was keen to raise funds for the new unit as a thank- you to the staff who cared for him.

Roger said: “The money will be put towards a transfer pod, which is like an intensive care unit on wheels.

“At the moment, York Hospital doesn’t have any of these and they have to borrow them from Leeds General Infirmary. The problem they have is that they are not always available.”

The Guardian Angels Appeal was launched to raise £300,000 to fund a high-dependency unit for children at York Hospital.

We celebrated reaching this target in October and now the appeal has been given official charity status to enable fundraising to continue to help with the upkeep of the new unit, and to buy extra equipment.

Roger, an osteopath from Warthill, near York, said: “I’d like to say a big thank-you to everybody at the Jinnah restaurant who went the extra mile to make the evening really special.

“I’m pretty chuffed to have raised £4,300 and I’m really happy that it will be put to such good use.”

To donate money to Guardian Angels, send cheques made out to Guardian Angels York, to Guardian Angels, Foss House, 271 Huntington Road, York, YO31 9BR.