Petition handover and debate day 7 September

I apologise for taking so long to update you on the events of the 7th September unfortunately family commitments prevented this happening any earlier. I am delighted to say the petition reached 6202 signatures- an absolutely fantastic achievement and our thanks goes to every single person who signed and shared the petition to help get this figure. In the last week the petition received support from comedian Rory Bremner and I am pleased to say he tweeted the link to his many followers. The petition was handed to Miles Briggs MSP and Ruth Davidson MSP by young cleft patients from The Sick Kids Edinburgh. Later that day it was passed on to Aileen Campbell Minister of Health and Sport (standing in for Shona Robison). The handover was very well attended by families and MSP’s from all parties. See attached photo, more to follow. Miles motion asking for the centralisation to be halted was debated later that day. There was a large group of supporters in the public gallery watching the debate (Link to debate video attached). Miles led the debate with a passionate speech summarising the reasons why the centralisation should be halted. Excellent speeches and questions in opposition to the centralisation were addressed to Aileen Campbell (SNP) from Angus MacDonald (SNP), Neil Findlay (Lab), Alison Johnstone (Green), Donald Cameron (Con) and Jackson Carlaw (Con). We are grateful to all the speakers who clearly understood our point of view and expressed it so eloquently. Shona Robison has stated she won’t be hurried into making a decision so now we wait. Whilst waiting we need to keep our campaign in the public eye so please keep writing to MSP’s, raise awareness by talking to your GP and dentist, write or respond to articles in newspapers or online. Remember this is not an Edinburgh versus Glasgow campaign this is an Edinburgh PLUS Glasgow campaign, our main goal is to have two sites in Scotland. Any issues with outcomes can be addressed later; we must keep both sites open to do that and to enable a full service for all of Scotland’s cleft patients. Thank you all for your continued support.