20,000 sign our Sick Kids petition

THE Sick Kids campaign against the downgrading of the children’s hospital has smashed the 20,000 signature mark.

People now have just hours to add their voices to the opposition against removing services from the Capital before the Evening News-backed petition is handed in tomorrow.

The petition, which was started by former brain tumour patient Ross Newlands, has snowballed since its launch.

Sick Kids supporters have been collecting signatures from the football terraces at Easter Road and Tynecastle to outside the shops in Princes Street, to the Lothians, the Borders, and Fife. There has been no shortage of people willing to sign up.

Gillian Downie, whose two-year-old son Sam was born with Caudal Regression Syndrome, a rare condition that occurs in one in 750,000 births, has managed to collect 2000 signatures.

Mrs Downie, 38, who gave up work to look after her son, said: “I think the fact that so many people have backed the campaign shows the strength of feeling about any downgrading of the Sick Kids.

“I think this has really hit home, and even people who have never had to use the service have realised that they might have to in the future and they would not want to have to travel as far as Glasgow.

“We are ecstatic about the support friends and colleagues have shown. People have really gathered round to do their bit and did not take a lot of persuading.”

Sam’s was just one of the stories which appeared in the Evening News illustrating the fantastic care patients at the Sick Kids receive. He sees a number of specialists, including doctors from the neurology department which, along with children’s cancer services, has been reviewed by a national steering group of experts, to decide if they should be downgraded.

Placing top-level neurology in a centre of excellence outside the Capital would have had the short-term effect of splitting Sam’s care over two sites.

In the long run, it would also have had a knock-on effect on the other specialists at the Sick Kids, as the hospital would struggle to attract the same level of talent.

A report has recommended neurology should not be downgraded in Edinburgh, but the final decision will rest with Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

Mrs Downie, from Brunstane, said: “After Sam was in the newspaper, texts came flooding in from everywhere, even from people I had not spoken to in ages, all wanting to help.”

Pages on the popular networking website Bebo have also boosted the campaign, with 230 people signing up in just four days.

Aimi Burrows, 18, from Broxburn, who suffered a kidney infection as a child, started the online petition. She said: “I have spent many days, nights and weeks in the Sick Kids as a child.

“It is a friendly environment for children. There are toys and paintings and the people there work with kids everyday.

“Children, like most people, do not like hospital, and I know from experience that it is a very scary place as a young person. But the Sick Kids was almost like a home away from home for me.”

• To join our campaign and sign our petition click here. To sign the Bebo petition go to www.bebo.com/Save-Sick-Kids