3. 2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 21 June 2016.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 2:54, 21 June 2016

Thank you very much, Julie Morgan, the Member for Cardiff North. On you first point, it was very important that you did have the opportunity to highlight the work of the Welsh bone marrow registry. These events here in the Senedd do raise awareness and it was the thousandth collection, as you say, of a matched donor. I want to congratulate the Welsh Blood Service alongside Julie. But also it is about congratulating the volunteers—people who come forward volunteering bone marrow donation. It is about how we can recruit more. I think the Cabinet Secretary knows that this is something where we need to recruit on a more local level as well as at a national level. We need to reach out to communities, and I’m sure that that was the message that came through at your event. So, Assembly Members can also play their part in helping to get that message over far and wide.

We would hope and expect that Julie Morgan from Cardiff North would seize the opportunity to praise her constituent, Gareth Bale, and to acknowledge his huge achievements and, of course, the whole team. He’s the highest scorer and certainly the star of the match and the tournament. To see him again is such a thrill for you and for us all, as well as his family. He’s a former school student at Whitchurch High School, and what a role model. So, I’m sure we’ll be celebrating and congratulating him in person in due course.