I would like to thank the Petitions Committee for bringing forward this debate and give particular thanks to the petitioner, Stuart Davies, for bringing the petition to the Assembly. Only yesterday, my husband had to attend Neath Port Talbot Hospital for an extremely painful biopsy on his prostate. So, this is a topic that is dear to my heart. The fact that my husband and hundreds of men like him could have a faster, less painful and less risky route to diagnosis but are being denied is unacceptable.

Multiparametric MRI has the potential to transform the prostate cancer pathway, but it is not available to all. Men are being forced to pay over £1,000 for an mpMRI scan because it is not available on the NHS in their part of Wales. My local health board doesn't offer this service. Had we lived 15 miles to the north-east, my husband would have had an mpMRI scan with dynamic contrast enhancement, which would have given his oncology team the best possible and most comprehensive detail about the health of the prostate. This would possibly have negated the need for the painful and invasive biopsy he underwent yesterday. It could have meant that he didn't have to undergo days, maybe a couple of weeks, of painful recovery. He might have avoided the need to live with the side effects of the powerful antibiotics he has been taking, and will continue to take, to stave off the threat of sepsis.

Over the border in England, the NHS has mandated the adoption of multiparametric MRI by 2020. We are making some progress in Wales, but it is slow due to a lack of trained radiologists. I welcome the moneys that the Welsh Government have put into improving MRI provision across Wales, as well as the establishment of the Welsh Imaging Academy. But this is not helping today. Welsh Government need to ensure that maximum utilisation of our MRI capacity is made. Where a health board cannot offer mpMRI with dynamic contrast enhancement, they should refer to other health boards or the private sector. Men should not be forced to find £1,000 to fund private MRI scans because they happen to live in a part of Wales that doesn't offer this revolutionary prostate cancer pathway. We are supposed to have a national health service, not seven regional health services. We have to end this postcode lottery today. We have to offer the best, the quickest and the most effective treatment pathway available today. I fully support this petition and the motion before us today, and I urge my colleagues to do likewise. Diolch yn fawr.