CAMPAIGNERS wanting to save the NHS from privatisation will be in Chippenham and Malmesbury this weekend to drum up support.

Campaign group 38 Degrees is collecting signatures for a petition which asks the county’s parliamentary candidates to oppose privatisation and keep the NHS out of the TTIP, the planned trade deal between the EU and the USA.

Their online petition has already been signed by more than 2,070 people in the Chippenham and the North Wiltshire constituencies.

Member Christine Gale, 68, of Castle Combe, said: "The more of us who hit the streets, the sooner politicians will realise that they will need to protect the NHS to get our vote.

"Private medical insurance is great for the young, healthy and wealthy. My parents and sister had private medical insurance. My father and sister both died in the NHS Royal United Hospital in Bath as the private health clinic did not have the facilities to care for them. The premiums for my mother's health insurance became unaffordable as she aged and needed expensive procedures."

Campaigners will be outside Malmesbury Abbey on Friday April 24 from 6pm, and on Chippenham Town Bridge near Superdrug on Saturday April 25 from 11am, or in wet weather at the Buttercross.

They are looking for more local people to join them in gathering signatures. See www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-events