Campaigners trying to save a major heart surgery unit from closure will take their battle to the Ilkley Carnival.

The mother of a three-year-old girl from the town who was saved by surgeons at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) when she was born in 2008, will have a stand at the carnival at East Holmes Field on Monday to promote the campaign to save the unit.

And Naomi Wilkinson is hoping more people will sign the petition against the proposed closure of the unit in Leeds. So far more than 200,000 signatures have been secured for the SOS (Save Our Surgery) fight – but campaigners still want more.

Mrs Wilkinson’s daughter, Olivia, underwent 18 hours of surgery at LGI hours after she was born.

She had to be resuscitated twice during the operations as surgeons massaged her tiny heart.

Without the unit at the LGI and the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF), Olivia, who recently celebrated her third birthday, would not be alive, Mrs Wilkinson says.

Now the future of the children’s heart surgery unit at LGI is under review in a four-month NHS consultation on plans to cut the number of similar units across the country.

Of the options, only one will see the surgery in Leeds survive, with parents and ill children faced with the prospect of travelling to Newcastle, Liverpool or Birmingham for care.

But Mrs Wilkinson says there has been a good response to the campaign from people in and around Ilkley She said: “We’ve delivered leaflets to a large part of Ilkley to try to make people aware and we’ve still got a lot to go. But I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has signed the petition and has helped out.”

So far, more than 30,000 people have also signed an on-line petition backing the LGI cause and Mrs Wilkinson has distributed paper petitions at various places around Ilkley including Ilkley Pet Shop, Shoe Bee Doo, Boyes, Grandad Nicol’s chip shop and the Ilkley Health Centre.

For more information about the Save our Surgery (SOS) appeal, go to chsf.org.uk