Yorkshire children's heart surgery campaigners raise profile on Twitter

A campaign to save children's heart surgery in Yorkshire is using the power of social media to back its cause. Campaigners fighting to save the unit at Leeds General Infirmary have created the #SOSyorks hashtag on micro-blogging site Twitter to raise the profile of their campaign, which has also seen more than 520,000 people sign the biggest-ever regional petition in the UK . The twitter campaign has seen supporters attempt to get the #SOSyorks hashtag trending. In the past 24 hours tweeters have asked politicians, celebrities and sportsmen including Barack Obama, Mike Tyson, Charlie Sheen, Alan Sugar, Rio Ferdinand and Alan Carr to raise the profile of the campaign by retweeting their tweets. Below are just some of the campaign tweets: The Leeds campaign, meanwhile, has received a boost after Parliament called for the review into children's heart surgery provision to consider new proposals. MPs have passed a motion calling for the Safe and Sustainable review – which is looking at plans to concentrate surgery in fewer centres in a bid to raise standards – not to be restricted to the four options currently being consulted on, three of which would see surgery cease at the LGI. A full copy of the parliamentary debate can be found here . The Yorkshire Post reports patients and their families face having to travel to Newcastle, Liverpool or Leicester if surgery is moved, but campaigners say the review contains inconsistencies and has not taken into account travelling times. The campaigners this week presented their petition to Downing Street. The review has proposed four options - all of which involve stopping operations at either four or five hospitals. The options are saving: * Newcastle, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol plus two in London * Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton plus two in London * Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol plus two in London * Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham plus two in London