Diolch, Llywydd. Members in this Chamber may have noticed that I wear this signet ring. It was given to me by my father when I was 16 years old. It was actually my grandfather's ring. It's got tighter as I've got older, it's got to be said. My grandfather was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the 1970s, and survived into the 1980s. One of the things he said to me was, 'I just want to live long enough to see you go to university.' My grandfather died when I was 10 years old. I'm sure that many of us have been touched by stories of bowel cancer, and therefore I'm delighted to bring this debate to the Chamber today.

Screening for bowel cancer is now available nationally across the four nations of the UK, and in Wales it's provided for people aged between 60 and 75. We've witnessed major innovations in the treatment options available, which have seen death rates for the UK as a whole fall by 13 per cent. This is a tribute to the hard work of many healthcare professionals and researchers in both the national health service and the pharmaceutical industry. However, it's clear that we still have work to do, and the Bowel Cancer UK charity has helped us see where that work can be done. Around 41,000 people across the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year. More than 2,200 of them are here in Wales. So, the heartbreaking and painful reality is that, of the 16,000 of these people UK wide, over 900 in Wales will lose their battle with this terrible disease. I'm sure that everyone in the Chamber today would agree that that is over 900 too many.

Put simply, the earlier diagnosed, the greater the likelihood you will survive five years or more. Early diagnosis is key and crucial to this is both raising awareness and screening, which I'm going to mention and raise with the Welsh Government in my speech today. People need to be aware of what the potential symptoms of bowel cancer are and I know that Members I've spoken to have plans to discuss that in detail. If you think you may have symptoms of bowel cancer, don't be embarrassed and don't ignore them, go and get them checked.

I recognise that five out of seven health boards in Wales are in breach of the Welsh Government mandated waiting times—over 1,800 patients in Wales are waiting more than eight weeks for a bowel cancer diagnosis. This is from a report published in February by Bowel Cancer UK, which we helped to launch. Mandy Jones and Andrew Davies AM helped to launch this in February here. The report also found that fewer than half the people eligible for bowel cancer screening tests in Wales took part, but screening is the most effective way of detecting bowel cancer. I wrote to the then Minister, Rebecca Evans, when she was Minister for public health in February 2017 on the issue of lowering the age of screening from 60 to 50, as is currently the case in Scotland. I was encouraged when she said, on 23 February 2017, 'the Welsh Government is committed to expanding the bowel screening programme in Wales to men and women aged 50 to 59 years, but our focus is on increasing the uptake in the current age range and reducing the inequities that we know exist before expanding the programme further.'

I think today is an opportune moment for the Cabinet Secretary for health to update us on what progress has been made since February 2017 and what progress the Welsh Government intend to make into 2019, which is part of our motion. The Minister in her letter also stressed the importance of raising awareness amongst lower income groups, because they're statistically less likely to present themselves for testing—