Fears the expansion of Heathrow Airport would lead to an access road flattening a cemetery have spurred a family into starting a petition.

Mother and daughter Edna and Natasha La Mothe were horrified when they saw a map showing a possible road through Cherry Lane Cemetery.

The cemetery is where Mrs La Mothe's late husband Everest, who died from a heart attack aged 74 in 2003, is buried, and she and her daughter thought it would be his final resting place.

However, the plans by BAA have so alarmed them they have created an online petition on the Downing Street website, as well as a link through social network site Facebook, to drum up opposition.

Mrs La Mothe, 68, said: "Natasha and I knew straight away we must do something. The campaign against the third runway is well known, however there is not a group dedicated to protecting the cemetery, so we created one.

"I am disabled and limited in what I can do physically, but I am using all the strength I have to defend my husband's grave and those of everyone else for whom this area is a haven."

Natasha and a group of her friends had T-shirts printed with the slogan Save Cherry Lane Cemetery, and wore them during the anti-expansion protest march on May 31.

Her mother said: "She's done a lot in a short space of time. The petition went live only three weeks ago and already we have more than 1,000 signatures. With this publicity we hope to get many, many more.

"I spend a lot of time at the cemetery, tidying the grave and keeping it looking nice with pansies and roses, and I am not the only one. I've never been there when it wasn't busy with people.

"BAA is a Spanish company, and to people from their country cemeteries are sacred and would never have a threat like this hanging over them. It stag-gers me they are willing to put grieving families through this."

BAA is aware of the petition and has attempted to reasure people. A spokesman said: "The map in the consultation

document shows an indicative layout of where road access schemes could be located if the Government made a policy decision in favour of a third runway at Heathrow.

"If the Government makes such a decision, BAA will carry out a detailed transport assessment and design process and any proposals would be subject to the full local planning process, and residents would have ample opportunities to make their views known.

"We apologise if local residents have been distressed by the map, but we can confirm that graves in Cherry Lane cemetary would not be destroyed."

The petition is at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CherryLane