A RALLYING call has gone out for people to sign a petition opposing the closure of Fairfield General Hospital’s maternity services.

Bury will lose its maternity and special care baby unit in March as part of a multi-million pound reorganisation of Greater Manchester’s women’s, children’s and neonatal services.

Pregnant women will instead have to travel to the Royal Bolton Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, or Rossendale or Salford birth units.

Despite the axe being expected to fall in just a few months, campaigners are continuing to fight for services to be retained at Fairfield.

They have launched an e-petition calling for the decision to be overturned.

They are currently working towards getting 100,000 signatures and if they reach their target by November 10, the issue will be debated in the House Of Commons.

Sharron Entwistle, who started the petition and is vice-chairman of Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, said: “We know it’s a huge undertaking to get 100,000 signatures, but we are prepared to try. We have been fighting to save the maternity unit for seven years and while it remains open, there is always hope.

“We need to get this issue raised in the House Of Commons as quickly as possible. Hopefully the MPs will get talking about the closure, see the new figures showing an increase in birth rates and overturn the decision.“ More than 1,800 people have already signed the petition and campaigners are doing as much as they can to tell people about it.

They have posted the link on social networking website Twitter and it has been retweeted to thousands of followers by celebrities including Bury-born actress Gemma Atkinson, Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster in Coronation Street, and Coleen Rooney.

Posters promoting the petition are also being circulated across Bury and Rossendale in the hope they will be displayed in nurseries, playgroups and other centres.

The e-petition can be found by visiting epetitions.direct.

gov.uk/petitions/5140.