Campaigners ready to hit the streets for Sick Kids

SICK Kids supporters across the city are gearing up for a day of action in a bid to keep key services at the children's hospital.

As many people as possible are needed to sign the petition to keep children's cancer and neurology and neurosciences departments in Edinburgh.

The Evening News has joined forces with concerned parents and community leaders to demand under-threat specialist services are not downgraded, and around 1500 people have already sent out a clear message to health chiefs – "Hands Off The Sick Kids".

There are a number of ways for people to get involved, as volunteers will be collecting signatures around the city tomorrow.

More than 250 members of the Hearts Supporters Trust will be taking the petition – which was launched by teenage former brain tumour patient Ross Newlands – to the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.

Hibs fans will also be encouraging people to sign up outside the stadium, prior to kick-off.

Nearby, Labour MSP George Foulkes will lead a team collecting signatures in Dalry Road.

Ross's mother, Gail, will be in the east end of Princes Street, while a number of Labour councillors, led by group leader Ewan Aitken, will be in the West End.

Volunteers will also be appealing to shoppers in Cameron Toll, The Gyle, Ocean Terminal and the Meadowbank retail park.

The campaign has been so far-reaching that one volunteer will even be collecting signatures in Fife.

Mrs Newlands said today: "Most of the people I work with have signed the petition. And a lot have taken sheets away to pass them around their friends and families.

"I am hopeful for Saturday and as determined as can be. Hopefully people will sign it, the response always seems to be positive.

"They always ask questions about what is happening to the Sick Kids and whether this means it could close.

"I explain it won't but they could take away services, and people always say 'they shouldn't do that' and sign up."

The Scottish Government is to consider centralising the highest level of the two services over the coming months.

If Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon does decide to remove them from Edinburgh, it will lead to the downgrading of the Capital's children's hospital.

At the same time, the most seriously ill youngsters will be forced to travel miles for treatment and spend weeks, if not months, away from friends and family.

Petition sheets have already been filling up in John Lewis in the St James Centre.

Some campaigners plan to put posters and petitions up in shops in their local area, including parts of Corstorphine and Gorgie.

Bars and restaurants have also backed the campaign, including the Swedish chain of Boda, Sofi's, the Victoria Bar and Pearce's, while the Wannaburger branches in both the High Street and Queensferry Street have joined in too.

The vast majority of volunteers are former patients, or relatives of patients, who know the value of the Sick Kids and what it would mean if services were lost from Edinburgh.

For some people, the debate over how specialist children's services in neurology and cancer should be handled in Scotland bares worrying similarities to when cardiology came under the spotlight.

In 1999, Silvana Politi was among the protesters who unsuccessfully fought against the then-Labour Scottish Executive's decision to close Edinburgh's prestigious children's heart surgery unit, centralising it instead in Glasgow.


Anna makes this battle so very important

LORRAINE GRANT is a busy mum with five children including one just out of hospital.

But despite the demands of her hectic home life she is making time tomorrow to collect signatures at The Gyle shopping centre.

Mrs Grant has seen at first hand how important the Sick Kids services are, after her daughter Anna, 11, a Ratho Primary School pupil, was diagnosed with a brain tumour shortly before Christmas.

Mrs Grant, 42, from Craigpark Crescent, Ratho, said: "She was diagnosed on December 17 and only just got out last week, so this campaign is really important for us. They operated on her on the 20th. They had to drain the fluid away and then they removed the tumour.

"She's recovering fine now and getting better all the time. We were in yesterday for a check up."

She added: "Everyone at the Sick Kids was absolutely brilliant. We could not have asked for better care. I was so glad we did not have to go across to Glasgow."


Crucial report due this month says Sturgeon

HEALTH Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs she expects to receive the crucial report on the future of children's cancer services by the end of the month.

She said any proposed changes would be subject to full consultation.

But she told parliament: "This government has a clear presumption against centralisation of services.

"That does not mean there will never be any specialisation of services, but it does mean where such specialisation is proposed, there must be strong evidence it is clearly in patients' interests.

"I would hope every member of this chamber would agree in the case of all health services, but particularly when we are dealing with children with cancer, we must ensure we have services of the very highest quality."


How you can help

• sign the petition
• collect signatures from family, friends and work colleagues
• let us know where you will be collecting signatures
• volunteer to join the petitions team
• put up the Hands off the Sick Kids poster
• tell us your story if you have a special reason to be grateful to the Sick Kids

Copies of the petition can be downloaded by clicking HERE. You can tell us your stories, volunteer to join a petition team or have a poster sent out to you by calling our health reporter Gareth Rose on 0131-620 8735 or email [e-mail]..

The move is clearly remembered by leading city medics, some of whom have raised concerns about the gradual stripping down of the Sick Kids Hospital to a satellite of Glasgow or a children's wing of the ERI.

Mrs Politi, who plans to collect signatures in Meadowbank retail park tomorrow, had seen her son Steven, now 14, undergo open heart surgery at the children's hospital.

She said: "He had surgery to close a hole in his heart when he was six years old. He had been diagnosed when he was just six weeks old.

"It didn't seem to affect him. He was a really healthy and lively boy, but it was internally that he had problems and when he was six, they decided to operate.

"One of the arteries is now a bit narrow but, God willing, they can't see anything else happening to him. It is up to the big man now."

The Scottish Government has stressed it has made no final decision on the future of the services and that its priority will be ensuring children receive the best possible treatment.

NHS Lothian has said it is awaiting the Government's decision and is hopeful the new Sick Kids Hospital, which is expected to be built in Little France by 2012, will contain the same expertise and range of treatments as the present one.