After an 18 month battle that has dominated her life, health campaigner Val Compton finally gets her day in court next week.

She and her team of lawyers who have worked tirelessly for free for the last year-and-a-half will finally get to put their case at the judicial review into the loss of services at Savernake Hospital to the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

A coach full of supporters will be travelling with Ms Compton for the four day hearing that starts on Tuesday.

Her legal team will argue that NHS Wiltshire was wrong to close the Minor Injuries Unit and Day Hospital at Savernake in the autumn of 2007.

However it is unlikely that the judge will give his decision on Friday, the last day of the hearing, and it could be several weeks before the outcome is known.

Yesterday, as townspeople gathered in the High Street for a final demonstration of support before Mrs Compton goes to London she modestly played down her part in the legal battle that has dominated her life and praised her lawyers instead.

She said: “Everyone I know joins me in sending a huge amount of thanks to our team of lawyers without whom we would have been powerless to do anything.”

Mrs Compton, 62, of Kennet Place, Marlborough, said: “We are the right sized community to have a hospital, generation after generation has supported and cherished Savernake and worked voluntarily for it.

“I’m pleased and proud to have become part of that tradition and I’m grateful to be surrounded by people who feel exactly the same.”

Leading her case in the High Court will be QC Neil Garnhem who will be supported by barristers Guy Opperman, who was born at Savernake Hospital, and Mathew Gullick.

The two barristers have spent thousands of hours preparing the case for the judicial review and opposing regular but unsuccessful applications to the High Court by NHS Wiltshire to have the case struck out.

Mrs Compton, who will not be required to give evidence next week, said she had forgotten how many times she had been required to attend courts and appeal hearings.

The retired physiotherapy assistant, who formerly worked at Savernake Hospital, quietly admits to friends that the case has taken over her life and, although she does not confess to having sleepless nights, she told the Gazette: “It has been something that has been continually occupying my mind.”

The judicial review is seen as a test case which other NHS trusts around the country are following because if Mrs Compton succeeds they fear it could open the floodgates for a spate of similar challenges.

NHS Wiltshire said the day hospital was replaced by a more efficient community service with the nurses visiting patients in their homes.

It argues that there are alternative NHS Wiltshire MIU facilities at Trowbridge or Chippenham, although most patients have opted to use the Clover Unit at the Great Western Hospital, run by the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, instead.