UK child protection campaigner Sara Payne in critical condition

The UK child protection campaigner, Sara Payne, is fighting for her life in a London hospital after suffering complications brought on by a previous brain surgery.

The forty-year-old campaigner is thought to be suffering from an internal bleed in her brain after a clip came loose. The clip had been inserted last year after surgery on a swollen blood vessel. Sara fell ill yesterday and her condition is thought to be getting worse say friends, as relatives gather by her bedside at St George's Hospital, Tooting, South London. Nine years ago Sara Payne's eight-year-old daughter Sarah Payne was killed by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting. Since then Sara has campaigned for tighter child protection laws and launched a fight to have 'Sarah's Law' introduced in the UK which would allow parents the right to know if there was a convicted paedophile living in their area. Whiting had a previous conviction and had served a jail sentence for the abduction and sexual assault of another eight-year old girl The founder and director of campaign group Kidscape and also good friend of Sara Payne, Michele Elliott said, "Sara is the most wonderful and indomitable person and if anyone can get through this, it's her. Everyone needs to pray and send their good thoughts at this difficult time. I have been in tears." In the 2008 New Years Honours List, Sara was awarded the MBE, recognition for her selfless and tireless work in attempting to prevent children from paedophiles. Sara Payne, separated from husband Michael Payne, has four other children aged, 5, 15, 21 and 22.