OUR Guardian Angels appeal to raise funds for a new children's high-dependency unit at York Hospital celebrates its second birthday today.

With perfect timing, this is also the day we smash through our latest big milestone - the £200,000 barrier.

It was a £1,000 cheque from York Lions Club that took us there. But today we celebrate the efforts of everybody who has contributed to the appeal.

The new unit is desperately needed. It will allow many more seriously ill children to be treated close to their homes and families in York, rather than having to be transferred to cities such as Leeds.

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

So it is great news that we have reached £200,000. Already, the money readers have helped raise is being put to good use. A project nurse has been recruited to oversee the unit's development.

There is still a long way to go to reach our £300,000 target. So please, keep those wonderfully imaginative fundraising ideas going. We would dearly love to hit our target in time for the appeal's third birthday a year from now.