LEADING actress Susan Hampshire has added her weight to the campaign to save the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. She was among 2,000 people who signed a peitition organised by Concern for Health in East Kent against the downgrading of the K&C.

CHEK campaigners collected signatures in Canterbury city centre on Saturday. Mrs Hampshire's son was born a month early at the K&C 32 years ago and the delivery turned into an emergency.

"If there hadn't been a full-functioning hospital here in Canterbury I would have had to go to Ashford and with premature babies every hour counts," said the actress, who has been appearing in Relative Values at The Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.

She said she was shocked when she first learned that the K&C could become a cottage hospital under East Kent Health Authority proposals to concentrate services in Ashford and Thanet. "Canterbury is up for the European Capital of Culture title in 2008, yet it might not have a hospital with an accident and emergency department," she stressed. "This is quite extraordinary and terrible for the people living in the area."

CHEK's Peggy Pryer said the petition team collected 2,000 signatures and nearly £500. The petition is expected to be presented to the East Kent Community Health Council on Thursday (February 28).