More than 20,000 voices have joined the campaign against a move that would see emergency heart attack victims forced to travel outside of the county for treatment.

A staggering number of concerned residents, from Ipswich to Leiston, Felixstowe to Stowmarket, Hadleigh to Woodbridge, are calling on the Government to rethink their plans.

The petitions have been organised by the Evening Star, cardiac sopprt group Heartbeat East Suffolk and Ipswich’s Conservative parliamentary candidate Ben Gummer.

Today Tony Hawes, the Chairman of Heartbeat East Suffolk, said the strength of feeling from heart patients and the public had been overwhelming:

“We were hoping to get 10,000, but we’ve got more than 16,000 and could have doubled it – there are still more coming in.

“We have never done anything like this before, but we felt we had to do something.”

Ben said: “I’ve got nothing but admiration for Heartbeat. This is an organisation which already does so much good work, such as raising money and helping people get to hospital, but it has been forced to put that good work on hold to fight.

“I think this campaign shows that although people are fed up with politicians they are not fed up with the community and making a difference.

“I’m so pleased we’ve all come together and I think that by so many people making their voices heard we have a chance of getting the right thing for Ipswich.”

12th June 2009