THE Prime Minister is listening. That’s what campaigners who could hold the key to securing children’s heart services in Oxford were told yesterday.

Chants of “save our heart unit” echoed through Downing Street yesterday as the 232,733 signatures from the Have a Heart campaign were delivered to No.10.

Campaigners in Oxford are concerned that if partnership hospital Southampton is not picked as a centre for children’s heart surgery, expertise could be lost from our county.

The campaign was organised by the Oxford Mail’s sister paper, the Daily Echo in Southampton.

Chairman of the charity Young Hearts Jude Kelly, whose daughter Eilish was saved by heart experts at Oxford’s John Radcliffe, wished the campaign success.

The Abingdon mum added: “We are closely linked with the Southampton campaign and the parents’ groups down there. They have done a fantastic campaign over the last four or five months.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

It was the task of nine-year-olds Aaron Prior and Oliver Diaper, two children who have had their lives saved by the children’s cardiac unit at Southampton General Hospital, to knock on the door of No.10 to hand over the petition.

Winchester and Chandlers Ford MP, Steve Brine, confirmed that PM and Witney MP David Cameron told him he was listening to the concerns of campaigners.

Mr Brine, who has secured a three-hour debate in the House of Commons later today about the review into children’s cardiac services, said he had spoken to Mr Cameron.

He said: “The Prime Minister told me that he was listening intently to the cases being made. I and other MPs have been bombarding him about this review and he is fully aware of the process.

“I am increasingly confident of the impact of this campaign.”

Those words were welcomed by campaigners, believing this puts further pressure on the health bosses who hold the fate of Southampton’s specialist unit – and therefore Oxford’s – in their hands.

As reported in the Oxford Mail on Tuesday, time is running out for people to respond to the Government’s consultation on the organisation of paediatric cardiology across the country – with just eight days left.

Ministers have set out four options detailing how fewer surgical centres would work with other hospitals designated as ‘cardiology centres’.

Although a review deemed Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital the least likely to become a ‘supercentre’, the hospital features in all four options as a cardiology centre.

Since surgery was stopped at the JR in March 2010, the hospital has formed a partnership with Southampton – but it is outlined as a possible surgical centre in only Option B in the consultation.

You can support the Option B plan which will safeguard resources in Oxford by responding to the Government consultation online at ipsos-mori.com/safeandsustainable or text the word ‘HEART’ to 85001 free of charge. You will then be sent a question asking for your views on the proposals for care changes.