RELIEVED parents have told how their baby’s life was saved by York Hospital’s Guardian Angels Unit.

Seb Topham spent four days in the children’s high-dependency unit at York Hospital, which was entirely funded by The Press’s £300,000 Guardian Angels Appeal.

His mum Wendy told how at one point her two-week-old son, who had bronchiolotis, stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated and put on a breathing machine for babies. If York Hospital had did have this machine, which was bought in 2008 with money from the Guardian Angels Appeal, Seb would have been transferred to Leeds General Infirmary.

In April, Wendy and her husband, Mathew, aim to swim nearly eight miles in five hours to raise funds for the unit’s upkeep.

She said: “The breathing machine was right there when he needed it and that really helped him.

“Without it he would have had to have gone to Leeds and that would have been so much harder.

“It was really reassuring to know that York Hospital had all the equipment Seb needed because if your local hospital doesn’t have what you need it makes you think it’s so much more serious.”

Wendy, 33, a youth worker for City of York Council, said they realised Seb needed hospital treatment when he turned blue as they were watching television one evening last November.

She said: “When I first saw him in the high dependency room, it was awful. He was attached to lots of monitors and it just looked so bad. I burst into tears.

“I keep thinking what would have happened if we didn’t bring him in that night.”

Seb, who has a two-year-old brother, Leo, has since made a full recovery.

Wendy, of Chapelfields, York, said they wanted to raise funds for the Guardian Angels unit as a way of thanking the staff who cared for their son.

She said: “They were brilliant. They were all very busy, but they were still really helpful, professional and caring.” She and Mathew, 28, who works as a carpenter, will attempt to swim 500 lengths between them of the 25-metre pool at Energise, in Acomb, which has offered them a free lane for five hours.

If you would like to sponsor the couple, please send cheques made payable to Guardian Angels York to Mr and Mrs Topham, 3 Bramham Road, York, YO26 5AN.