The Aberdeen Evening Express is asking its readers to voice protest at a scheme that places the future of the brain unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in doubt.

Thousands of people across the area fear that a proposed move could lead to a complete demise of the unit.

Other specialist services under threat include children’s cancer care and diagnosis services, which could be redirected to either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Relocation of these services is currently being discussed by the SNP and, in an effort to save them, the Aberdeen Evening Express has published a letter of opposition, available for people to print off and send to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

The letter talks of the “extremely worrying threat” hanging over the brain unit and calls on the Government to take appropriate action.

It is hoped that if hundreds of people send a copy of the letter, the Royal Infirmary and its partners will have to reconsider their options.

The Evening Express letter’s concluding paragraph reads: “If you have a heart and a conscience, let the north-east keep its specialist brain unit. Then you will know that you, as Health Secretary, have directly saved the lives of vulnerable patients desperate for brain surgery in the north-east.”