I've been contacted by a woman from the Rhondda whose 23-year-old daughter recently went through a health scare. After getting symptoms, she went for a blood test and, while at the clinic, she read information on a poster about cervical cancer and realised that she had all the symptoms that were described on that poster, bar one. When she told the doctor of her concerns, she was told that she couldn't have a smear test because she was under the age of 25. Now, this was in a week when all of us were being encouraged to go for our smear test, and she was told that she would have to wait until she was over 25 before she could have it. Such was the worry in the family about the symptoms that this young woman was displaying, they arranged an appointment with a gynaecologist at a private hospital the following morning. The woman and her family had a two-and-half-week anxious wait for those test results to come back, which thankfully were clear. 

Now, this family were lucky, they could afford to pay to go privately, but what if they didn't have the money for that private smear test? I agree with the mother of this woman when she said, 'If there is advertising of symptoms and someone displays those symptoms, surely it's common sense to investigate.' So, I'd like a statement on Government policy on this, and in that statement I want the health Minister to clarify what the Welsh Government policy is on the screening of women with symptoms of cervical cancer under the age of 25. Are there exceptions to the general age rule? And I also would like to know what mechanisms there are in place to reimburse this family for being forced to go privately in order to get the peace of mind that they should have been able to get through our NHS.