Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 31 January 2017.
Yes, I think that’s reasonable. We want to see more people live with and, ultimately, survive lung cancer. The survival rates are around about 8 per cent or 9 per cent, if I remember rightly. They’re in single figures and they are low. Much of it is because early diagnosis is so crucial to any type of cancer and the symptoms don’t manifest themselves quite often unless people present as acute cases in the hospitals. I do believe that our GPs are referring people as they should. There is no question to my mind that that is happening and that people are receiving the attention that they need. Where people have complex forms of cancer, of course, sometimes multiple tumours, then it does take some time to begin a course of treatment because that treatment has to be planned in the most effective way for them. But I have no difficulty, of course, in looking to support an initiative that wants to cut the number of deaths through lung cancer in the way that the leader of the Welsh Conservatives has described.