Health Reporter CHARLOTTE PERCIVAL issues an appeal for help with the Evening Press Guardian Angels campaign to improve high-dependency care provision for children in York, after seeing her niece rushed into hospital.

WHEN I interviewed staff on York Hospital's children's ward in the run-up to launching Guardian Angels, I could never have guessed how poignant their words would soon seem to my family.

Only days later, Sophie Middleton, my niece, was suddenly taken into hospital and we all realised just how important having the very best care and equipment could be.

Sophie, aged 15 months, developed a nasty cough after a holiday in Spain.

Over the next few hours she became very ill, hot, clingy and sleepy, and was diagnosed with a virus by her GP.

Sophie's mum, Heather, who is my sister, noticed she had also become a little cross-eyed. The next day, when Sophie started to suffer from diarrhoea, Heather phone NHS Direct.

She was told to take Sophie to Selby War Memorial Hospital - and from there she was sent to York Hospital for assessment.

My other two sisters and I were enjoying a normal Sunday evening in front of the TV when our mum told us Sophie was in hospital.

No matter how many times you tell yourself not to panic, you cannot suppress the rising sense of alarm you feel when a tiny little person that you love with all your heart could suddenly be in danger.

Hard as it was for us to sit at home waiting for news, it was even harder for Sophie's parents, anxiously waiting to find out why their child was so poorly.

Sophie was examined, discharged and asked to come back the next day. She was in and out of hospital for a few days, and also had an MRI scan.

As it turned out, our family was lucky.

Sophie had a virus which damaged the nerves in her eye, affecting her vision. She now has to wear patches over her healthy eye to encourage the other to work properly again.

At her last check-up, the optician was pleased with her progress.

Heather, 20, remembers how on the night Sophie was taken ill, nurses were busy with a baby who was being given high-dependency care in a room by the nurses' station.

She said: "Taking your baby to hospital is an extremely scary experience. I remember feeling so sorry for the parents of that very poorly baby and being really worried Sophie might need that kind of care too."

Everybody knows how important improving paediatric high-dependency care is, but not everybody realises how frightening it is to see a child you care about in hospital."

Please help the Guardian Angels appeal to make sure we have the very best here in York, should you, your friends or family, ever need it.

Does your child owe its life to York Hospital's children's ward? Would you like to share your story to help boost our appeal? Phone our newsdesk on 01904 653051, or email us at newsdesk@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 10:27 Friday, October 14, 2005