ENTHUSIASTIC staff from a York bar company took part in a team bonding exercise - and raised a massive £16,000 for our Guardian Angels appeal.

The remarkable sum pushes the appeal total past the £100,000 barrier, and it now stands at £107,000.

Donations and pledges were gathered by a team of 18 staff from McMillan York Ltd, which runs Nexus and the newly-named bpm bar in Rougier Street, formerly McMillans.

Maureen Augey, the Guardian Angels project nurse at York Hospital, said: "We're absolutely thrilled and very, very grateful to McMillan and all their business partners who have donated on our behalf.

"This will take us well on our way to get some more of the equipment we need. We're really, really pleased."

Employees from the company, including maintenance crew, door and venue managers, were divided into two groups on the specially-arranged team-bonding day.

Staff were set a challenge of raising £10,000 for our appeal in just one day - but they exceeded that by thousands.

Each team was expected to come up with ways of raising as much money as possible.

Employees rang up businesses and asked them to pledge a donation to our appeal and also took fundraising buckets into shopping centres such as York Designer Outlet and Monks Cross.

There were some more spectacular ideas too: some team members gathered sponsorship for a parachute jump, while others have volunteered to canoe all the way from London to York in return for donations.

McMillan managing director Russell Brown said: "The amazing thing was, both teams raised within £100 of each other. I think what surprised me was the generosity of people.

"I think it's fantastic, it's wonderful. At the end of the day, I felt so proud of the people who had achieved it. I'd like to express my gratitude to all the people who contributed."

The efforts of McMillan staff are the biggest so far for our appeal - and have given it a massive boost.

Press assistant editor Francine Clee said: "What McMillan staff did in one day is truly astonishing.

"They pulled out the stops in a remarkable way. We are very grateful to them for pushing our appeal over £100,000 and giving us a biggest boost to date."

The Press Guardian Angels appeal is raising £300,000 for a new high- dependency unit at York Hospital's children's ward.