Tom joins fight to save the cardiac unit that saved him

Monday 21st March 2011, 2:29PM GMT.

Tom Jenkins holds a photo of him in Southampton General when he was 15 and the petition he wants people to sign to keep the best cardiac unit in the country outside London open. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1112057)

FOOTBALLER Tom Jenkins was only a day old when he was taken to Southampton General’s Children’s Cardiac Unit with a hole in the heart.

Now 21, he is campaigning to keep the unit open as the UK Government looks to cut the current 11 paediatric cardiac centres to six or seven.

The finance worker has been operated on three times at the unit, which features in only one of four options put forward for public consultation.

Mr Jenkins heard about the closure of the unit, which is the second best in the UK, only through a friend whose son had been looked after there. His surgeon had also operated on Holly Guy’s son, Jake, five years ago. She spoke about the closure earlier this month,