Unfortunately, not everyone is able to benefit from pulmonary rehab, with just one in 10 people accessing services. Waiting times across Wales vary from 77 weeks to fewer than eight weeks, with as little as three programmes per year on offer to patients in some areas. Funding should and could be rebalanced away from expensive inhaler treatments towards more cost-effective interventions. The rehabilitation support does offer that invaluable help I mentioned and improves muscle strength. It helps patients cope better with breathlessness and supports better mental health.

Welsh Government is aspiring to increase access through the respiratory health delivery plan and I hope they and health boards will continue to invest in high-quality services across our country. Earlier this year, I was very glad to join the British Lung Foundation's Helping You Help Yourself programme in Newport, which ran at the Newport Centre. Around 1.8 per cent of the population in my constituency are living with COPD, the Welsh average being around 2.3 per cent, which is a higher average than the rest of the UK.

Working with Big Lottery Fund Wales, the foundation have developed a seven-week education and exercise programme to help participants better understand their condition. It will improve health and provide the tools to stay active and manage conditions independently. The programme is delivered by a BLF programme co-ordinator, a healthcare professional and a volunteer tutor with experience of living with COPD.

I saw at first-hand the difference these programmes make and made to people whose lives are affected by lung disease. To date, 123 participants in 27 programmes across Wales have taken part in the scheme, with the four programmes in Newport involving 20 people. In Newport, the number of participants who felt that they had a good understanding of their lung condition increased by 42 per cent and there was a 7 per cent uplift in the numbers who felt they had adopted more positive health behaviours, such as healthy eating and an improved social life. There was a notable increase in the average distance walked in six minutes, from 364m to 407m, with less breathlessness. And an overwhelming majority, 96 per cent, stated that they found the programme and the materials useful.

In fact, one of my constituents, Michael Taylor, described how this course freed him from a life sentence of living in ignorance in relation to his condition. He said that it had introduced him to others living with the condition and helped him understand how exercise would allow him to gain a complete understanding and improvement of his condition and provide him and others taking part with the chance to ask relevant questions and receive instant support, which enabled them to overcome any worries or concerns that they had. The most important thing that the course had taught him was that he wasn't alone in suffering in the way that he had and that there were organisations like the British Lung Foundation, medical practitioners and volunteers happy to give their time and care to improve the quality of life of those living with respiratory illness. I do believe, Dirprwy Lywydd, that his words serve as a reminder to all of us of the very real positive impact that pulmonary rehab can have on people's health and well-being, and I know that many other Assembly Members have visited programmes and had direct experience of their value.