Valentine's Southlands Hospital demo

Braving the cold and wet, the campaigners stood at the entrance to the Shoreham hospital, waving heart-shaped placards and red balloons as passing cars in Upper Shoreham Road tooted support.

For former patient Ella Hutt, it was her first time at a protest. She said: "I wanted to come along and add my voice of support. I was a patient in Southlands Hospitals for eight months after I broke my hip and then developed complications. I live in Shoreham and I don't want my local hospital to close."

Janet Coom-ber, wife of Adur District Council chairman Brian, was at the protest collecting signatures for a petition against the closure of Southlands.

She said: "People want to know that their hospitals are open on their door-steps, not miles away in some specialist centre.

"If Worthing and South-lands hospitals are clos-ed, we will be looking at horrendous journeys to hospitals at Brighton or Chich-ester. My husband and I had to go the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton recently and the queue for a parking space alone was an hour and a half."