A WEYMOUTH family has collected almost 1,000 signatures in their fight to save the heart unit that saved their baby daughter’s life.

Lisa and Ian Green launched a petition to save the Ocean Ward at Southampton General Hospital, where two-year-old Amelia was treated.

The children’s cardiac unit is under threat as health bosses look to cut the UK’s 11 units to six or seven.

Their petition went into shops, schools, banks, supermarkets and to family and friends, and the family has been touched by the ‘fantastic’ response.

Mrs Green, of Mountbatten Close, Wyke Regis, said: “Our aim was to get 1,000 signatures but when we counted them up there were 950.

“We were going to try and get the extra 50 but I knew we had to get them in as soon as possible before they go to Downing Street.

“We haven’t come across one person that has said no to the petition, everybody has been absolutely fantastic.

“A lot of the shops are not allowed to put it on their counter but they have still taken them upstairs and let their staff sign it.

“I went door to door on my estate, which I don’t like doing, but again, not one person said no.

“When we told people they just couldn’t believe it.”

The 950 signatures will be added to the thousands more collected by the Dorset Echo’s sister paper the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton, which is spearheading the Have a Heart Campaign.

More than 110,000 signatures have been collected in 13 weeks as hundreds of angry campaigners last week held a rally in Southampton.

Amelia’s problems started in December 2009 when a heart murmur was detected and she was referred to Southampton as her condition quickly deteriorated.

Specialists discovered a hole in her heart and she was operated on in February 2010, but the hole was much bigger than expected.

Amelia is now doing well, despite a brief illness recently.

Mrs Green, 42, said: “Until she builds her immune system up again completely she will get blips, but with regards to her heart, they’re happy, and if they’re happy, I’m happy.

“I’ve got faith in them and that’s why we launched the petition. We’ve never done anything like this before but they were so good with us as a family that we wanted to do something.

“We hope it will help in some way and I know there’s been a huge response in Southampton as well.”

• The cardiac care unit is under threat despite being ranked the second best in the country.

The Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts will cut the number of specialist centres from 11 to six or seven as part of a controversial review recommending there are fewer but larger units.

Southampton was featured in just one of four options which have been put out for a four-month public consultation, ending on July 1, before the joint committee of Primary Care Trusts makes its final decision by the end of the year.