A DUNFERMLINE pensioner has joined the fight to restore Accident and Emergency services to the Queen Margaret Hospital after reading about a petition for the cause in the Press.

Anita Segar, who is in her 70s, has been pounding the pavement in rain and shine, collecting more than 400 signatures and will not give up without a fight.

As the Press first reported last month, the petition was started by Jim Philp who stated that lives were being put at risk due to the extra miles that patients across West Fife have to travel for A&E treatment at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

All emergency services were moved from Dunfermline to Kirkcaldy in 2012 under ‘Right for Fife’ proposals developed in 2001/2002 to modernise health provision across the Kingdom.

Anita, who moved to Dunfermline in 2012 to be closer to her three grandchildren after more than 40 years living in Oxford, told the Press, “I feel very strongly about this. When you need emergency treatment time is at a premium and 10 minutes can make all the difference.

“The response has been terrific, almost everyone has a story to tell and is so supportive of it.” The pensioner has already proved she is not one to be messed with – in 2010 she won a £10,000 settlement from four separate insurance companies after a six-year legal battle over accidents that were not her fault.

Anita initially took a trip to the Queen Margaret to sign the petition but was told by staff there they weren’t allowed to keep a copy there. Instead she got hold of one through Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty’s office, photocopied it 30 times and away she went.

She was formerly employed with the transplant team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, a world-renowned teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Cambridge, worked closely with anaesthetists and was part of a “flying squad” that attended accidents during her time there.

She added, “I’m not medically qualified but I worked with a transplant team and know how important these things are. I spoke to some workmen outside the library recently who told me they weren’t going to sign because they were from Glasgow.

“I said, ‘That’s exactly why you should, because if you have an accident would you rather be five minutes up the road or 25?’ That convinced the foreman and he got them all to sign.” The petition has now attracted more than 10,000 signatures and been backed by Dunfermline MSP Cara Hilton, who will meet NHS chief executive John Wilson on 2nd May to discuss the issue.

Petition organiser Jim Philp said, “Anita has been getting a lot of signatures outside shops, supermarkets, all over really. For her to get involved is great, she is really up for it and very determined.

“I didn’t expect this to gather so much momentum so quickly.”