Have a Heart, please.
It's time for a Pepper rant! This time it's not so much about my personal life, more a plea to anybody in the south of England who may be reading. I dunno how much of an effect international people will have. You'll see.
Almost nineteen years ago, I was born. Premature and by emergency Caesarian. I didn't cry when I was born; I didn't breathe right away. This was because I had a hole in my heart. (for those who don't know what that entails, there's a brief description here: http://www.cardiacmatters.co.uk/hole-heart.html) I also had a slight fault in my heart that meant that one vein that goes out of your heart and then straight back in? Mine starts off okay, then splits into two before joining again when it goes back in.
Because of this, I had to be referred to the Southampton Paediatric Cardiac clinic. It's an hour from here but y'know, it was worth it. Because those people saved my life. I would not be here right now. I wouldn't have made it past my first year. I was discharged when I was about 5 with, aside from slight respiratory problems that I just learnt to deal with, a clean bill of health. That hole closed up.
Now jump forward to now. The government here is making big cuts to the NHS. Can you see where I'm going with this? Out of the current 11 cardiac clinics in the UK, they want to bring that down to 6 or 7. Yep. For the whole country. And, despite being the second best cardiac clinic in the country, Southampton has a 25% chance of surviving.
See, the government has proposed four options for the general public, and each option has six or seven clinics in it. Southampton is in ONE of them. The second best clinic in the country is at serious risk. There's kids out there that have it way worse than I did. If Southampton closes down, their alternatives are Bristol or London. Both about 2 hours away from Southampton. I'm sorry Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, but kids who need to go to these places won't be able to make those journeys. Where are the parents going to get the time or the money? In case you haven't noticed, we're still in the recession. Making these remaining centres bigger is NOT a compromise to closing smaller, better, more accessible ones.
Because of all of this, the Daily Echo has set up a petition. (http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/health/8864365.Sign_up_to_help_save_heart_unit/) As I said, I don't think it'll work for international signees. But please, the Brits out there amongst you, consider it. This petition can save the clinic, if there's enough response.
I'm not forcing you, if you don't want to. But dammit, those people saved my life. I owe it to them to save them.
Almost nineteen years ago, I was born. Premature and by emergency Caesarian. I didn't cry when I was born; I didn't breathe right away. This was because I had a hole in my heart. (for those who don't know what that entails, there's a brief description here: http://www.cardiacmatters.co.uk/hole-heart.html) I also had a slight fault in my heart that meant that one vein that goes out of your heart and then straight back in? Mine starts off okay, then splits into two before joining again when it goes back in.
Because of this, I had to be referred to the Southampton Paediatric Cardiac clinic. It's an hour from here but y'know, it was worth it. Because those people saved my life. I would not be here right now. I wouldn't have made it past my first year. I was discharged when I was about 5 with, aside from slight respiratory problems that I just learnt to deal with, a clean bill of health. That hole closed up.
Now jump forward to now. The government here is making big cuts to the NHS. Can you see where I'm going with this? Out of the current 11 cardiac clinics in the UK, they want to bring that down to 6 or 7. Yep. For the whole country. And, despite being the second best cardiac clinic in the country, Southampton has a 25% chance of surviving.
See, the government has proposed four options for the general public, and each option has six or seven clinics in it. Southampton is in ONE of them. The second best clinic in the country is at serious risk. There's kids out there that have it way worse than I did. If Southampton closes down, their alternatives are Bristol or London. Both about 2 hours away from Southampton. I'm sorry Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, but kids who need to go to these places won't be able to make those journeys. Where are the parents going to get the time or the money? In case you haven't noticed, we're still in the recession. Making these remaining centres bigger is NOT a compromise to closing smaller, better, more accessible ones.
Because of all of this, the Daily Echo has set up a petition. (http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/health/8864365.Sign_up_to_help_save_heart_unit/) As I said, I don't think it'll work for international signees. But please, the Brits out there amongst you, consider it. This petition can save the clinic, if there's enough response.
I'm not forcing you, if you don't want to. But dammit, those people saved my life. I owe it to them to save them.