Bank on our staff to be life-savers! APPEAL: Building society fundraisers buy second vital pump for Children's Hospital In association with The Red Balloon Appeal.

Byline: By Alison Dayani

THE BIRMINGHAM Mail's Give A Little, Save A Life appeal is gathering pace with a pledge of funding for the second machine in as many days.

Generous staff at West Bromwich Building Society have been fundraising through the year for good causes.

And once they read how pennies could save lives, they decided to make an immediate difference by donating their hardearned pounds 1,400 to go to our appeal.

It means cash has now rolled in for TWO life-saving volumetric infusion pumps, meaning there are just SIX more left to get.

Yesterday, we revealed how the Birmingham Mail Charity Trust pledged to give the first pounds 1,400 for the first pump to get the ball rolling.

Brian Seymour-Smith, a spokesman for the building society, said: "A lot of the staff said they would like to add their support to the Mail appeal after they saw the paper.

"They regularly raise money for charity and this is exactly the kind of thing it is supposed to go towards."

Mail editor Steve Dyson said: "It is fantastic to have such an immediate response to this appeal. West Bromwich Building Society is in the heart of the community and has proved that today.

"I look forward to other donations and I'm already excited about the amount coming in from the public."

Children's Hospital bosses need eight of the pumps to save lives like one-year-old Mohammed Hasnin, from Handsworth, who would have died from dangerously high ammonia levels in his blood without the equipment.

The pump drips vital fluids and drugs into little bodies and would be especially useful for badly-burnt patients when the new burns unit opens at the hospital this Autumn.

But with the tough job of balancing the NHS books for just the day-to-day running of the hospital, bosses can only dream of buying the equipment. Children's Hospital spokesman Alan Taman was delighted with the latest donation and said: "Yet again, we see how the people and firms of the Midlands respond to good causes they know are going to get results. West Bromwich Building Society is already helping the Children's Hospital and now it is helping even more. I am reassured by seeing generosity of this scale. We are all grateful and determined that every penny of this will be perfectly well spent."

CAPTION(S):

PLEDGE... Heather Foote, chairman of the building society's charities committee. Picture: John Reavenall Photosales No.: JR090807Money-2