I was taken to the hospital in a car, led by a police car, in a snow storm and arrived with minutes to spare.

Peter Jarvis, transplant patient

Cardiothoracic transplantation is a national service currently provided by seven centres in England.

There are three centres risking closure in Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham.

Helen Jackson, Labour MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, along with 15 other MPs from across Yorkshire, met Health Minister John Hutton to lobby against the government proposal to close the unit at Sheffield.

The petition was wheeled to the Department of Health on a hospital trolley.

Helen Jackson with Gerry Lucas of the Transplant Society

Ms Jackson said: "The four members of the Transplant Society are all themselves transplant recipients and a walking testimony to the success of the Sheffield unit.

"They put their case very strongly. I think the main thing to come out of the meeting was that the decision to close our unit was more statistical than patient-led."

Peter Jarvis, 72, from north Nottinghamshire, had a heart transplant at the Sheffield unit in December 1995.

He said: "I was taken to the hospital in a car, led by a police car, in a snow storm and arrived with minutes to spare."

"If I'd had to go to Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, or Freeman at Newcastle, I wouldn't have made it in time."

The chief executive of the Northern General Hospital, Andrew Cash, arrives in London on Monday to brief the Yorkshire MPs about the situation.