MUM JUDE Kelly credits surgeons at the John Radcliffe Hospital with saving the life of her two-year-old daughter Eilish she suffered heart failure in 2009.

Mrs Kelly, who lives in Abingdon and is chairman of Oxfordshire charity Young Hearts, said she supported Option B because it represented the best care for her child and others like her.

She said: “It’s not just those with congenital heart disease who need surgery.

Our daughter had a virus that attacked her heart and we arrived in an ambulance at the JR as an emergency.”

But she said the halting of children’s heart surgery at the JR, in March 2010, meant Eilish later had to have treatment by Oxford’s Dr Neil Wilson – but at Southampton.

Certain procedures, such as catheters, a non-surgical technique used to treat certain heart conditions, can only be carried out if a surgeon is on site. As such, procedures like this are carried out in Southampton, often by Oxford experts.

Mrs Kelly added: “If that link with Southampton had not existed it would have meant going to London or Bristol to a new and unknown hospital and a team who don’t know my daughter.”

Young Hearts was set up to support parents of children with heart conditions in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Kelly said: “We at Young Hearts are urging Oxfordshire residents to support Option B as we feel it represents the best option for our children and others like them across the county.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk