As a result of the NHS's review of paediatric heart surgery provision across the country, the Children's Heart Surgery Unit at the Yorkshire Heart Centre in Leeds is at risk.

The unit provides specialist surgery and care to children from all over Yorkshire and the Humber, Lincolnshire and North Derbyshire. If it closed, hundreds of children who require life-saving surgery each year would have to travel long distances, possibly hundreds of miles to another facility. This could put their lives in greater jeopardy.

It would also cause severe distress for the patients and their families, and would see the end opf a great team of spcialist surgeons and experienced nurses, who have worked so hard to provide unrivalled service and care.

We believe closing this unit would affect not only the hundreds of families who rely on it each year, but everyone in the region who believes Yorkshire should retain its essential healthcare services.

The Childrens Heart Surgery Unit MUST remain open.

If you agree, please sign this petition and visit the CHSF website (http://www.chsf.org.uk) to find out how you can also write to your MP to oppose these plans.