The Bennett household is like any family home. One son is running around with his pants on his head and the other is rolling across the floor. It's noisy, chaotic and full of fun and laughter. But this household has more reason than most to be happy.

For three years ago, cancer and heart problems nearly cost little Paul Bennett his life.

And his parents, Derek and Karen, are delighted that their son - who was the first child to be treated in Yorkhill's new intensive care unit, which celebrates its third anniversary this month - has survived against the odds.

The couple have had a tough couple of years; their second son, Ethan, was born with cysts on his brain, meaning he may face surgery, but they refuse to be downbeat.

In fact, there's an air of noisy fun about the Bennett household. TIMESFILE MORE THAN 3000 children and young people have been treated in Yorkhill's intensive care unit since it opened in 2005.

But it's not just about numbers, as Maureen Taylor, the hospital's critical care co-ordinator, explained.

She said: "Patients tend to stay with us longer because we are keeping them alive longer, and that is certainly due in part to the excellent facilities and equipment in the new unit.

"Over the past three years and have increased our staff to around 130, covering both intensive-care and high-dependency."

The £5.5million unit has 16 intensive-care beds - allowing one-to-one care 24 hours a day- and six high-dependency beds for those out of immediate danger but not well enough to go on wards.

The Evening Times Magic Million Appeal paid for the clinical information system, which monitors vital statistics such as heart rate and blood pressure at bedside and relays it to a central unit.

Our appeal also helped provide accommodation for parents, including counselling rooms, a small kitchen and sitting room.

The former ICU - a cramped, windowless room with no privacy for grieving or anxious families - is now a distant memory, as Maureen enthused.

"It's fantastic - it's lighter and brighter, and there is much more room," she said. "We're delighted with it - it's made a huge difference to patients and staff."

MORE THAN 3000 children and young people have been treated in Yorkhill's intensive care unit since it opened in 2005.

But it's not just about numbers, as Maureen Taylor, the hospital's critical care co-ordinator, explained.

She said: "Patients tend to stay with us longer because we are keeping them alive longer, and that is certainly due in part to the excellent facilities and equipment in the new unit.

"Over the past three years and have increased our staff to around 130, covering both intensive-care and high-dependency."

The £5.5million unit has 16 intensive-care beds - allowing one-to-one care 24 hours a day- and six high-dependency beds for those out of immediate danger but not well enough to go on wards.

The Evening Times Magic Million Appeal paid for the clinical information system, which monitors vital statistics such as heart rate and blood pressure at bedside and relays it to a central unit.

Our appeal also helped provide accommodation for parents, including counselling rooms, a small kitchen and sitting room.

The former ICU - a cramped, windowless room with no privacy for grieving or anxious families - is now a distant memory, as Maureen enthused.

"It's fantastic - it's lighter and brighter, and there is much more room," she said. "We're delighted with it - it's made a huge difference to patients and staff."

Paul, who is now three and a half, is tearing about the place, the theme from Thomas the Tank Engine is blaring in another room and wee brother Ethan is making a beeline for all sorts of lights and ornaments that have to be swiftly shoved out of reach.

"There's not much that holds them back," grins mum Karen, neatly removing a string of fairy lights from Ethan's fist.

The Evening Times first told the Bennetts' story two years ago, to mark the first anniversary of the opening of Yorkhill's intensive care unit, which is partly funded by our readers who raised more than £1million for the state-of-the-art facility.

When he was just a few weeks old, Paul needed open heart surgery to correct a rare condition in which the two major arteries are the wrong way round.

The operation was a success, but Karen, 31 and Derek, 33, from Newton Mearns, were hit with a second, devastating blow when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Again, Paul pulled through, and now, doctors at Yorkhill are delighted with his progress.

"We've just been for his oncology and cardiology check ups and they're both pleased with him - we don't have to go back for a year," smiles Karen.

"He's doing really well and we have Yorkhill to thank, of course - the new ICU was a wonderful place - although I never, ever want to see it again."

Ethan, now 19 months, was born in March 2007 - and despite a healthy pregnancy and no obvious signs once she returned home from hospital, Karen could not shake the growing feeling that something was wrong.

"He was a terrible feeder, and very floppy," she recalls, "and everyone was saying, oh, it might be this, or that - and I thought, we've been here before..."

Derek adds: "Again, the staff at Yorkhill were great - they didn't dismiss us at all, and listened to everything we told them. I suppose we were panicking because of what had happened before, but they took us seriously."

Tests suggested developmental problems, but when Ethan was six months old, he had a brain scan - and again, Derek and Karen found themselves on the receiving end of shocking news.

"They told us Ethan had two cysts on his brain," says Karen. "I couldn't believe it - it was like history repeating itself. We were climbing the walls. Our first thought was - is it cancer? But it's not, and they're just going to wait and see how things go over the next year.

"Worst case scenario is that he will need an operation to remove them."

She laughs: "It's funny how your perceptions change - I was actually relieved when I was told my son had cysts on his brain. I just thought, okay, cysts on the brain? I can cope with that."

Once again, Karen and Derek have found themselves regular visitors to Yorkhill.

"We've got the physio for both, the home teacher, Paul's hearing appointment - because chemo can sometimes damage your ears - plus the optician and the speech therapist - and oncology, cardiology it took me half an hour to put them all in my diary."

Karen and Derek are as cheerful and stoical as they always have been, and if the last three and a half years have knocked the stuffing out of them, they're doing well at putting a brave face on things.

"To be honest, if we've learned one thing, it's that what's going to be, will be," says Karen. "I get much more teary and upset about things than Derek - he's just fantastic.

"I thought that by this stage, as we get to the point that we don't have to go back for appointments for a year, two years, that I'd think, great, I don't have to worry any more. But I realise I will always worry - it never goes away. Have we missed something, is the cancer back - that fear is always there."

Derek says: "The saddest thing for me is that we would have had more kids - we always wanted a big family.

"But now, I don't know if we would take the risk."

Karen says: "The hardest times for us are when we are with people who have children. It's hard not to feel sorry for yourself and think, why me? why us?' "But when we're together, the four of us, it's just us, we're a family, we're happy, and we will just take what comes."