Thank you. I'd like to thank my fellow Assembly Members from across the Chamber who have supported today's pancreatic cancer awareness event and those who jointly brought forward this debate. I'm very pleased that the Chair of the health committee, Dr Dai Lloyd, will be closing the debate today. Dai will, I know, voice the concerns that many of us have about how different solutions are identified for different cancers in the context of the new single cancer pathway, because for the patients we are discussing today, more than almost any others, time is of the essence.

In almost every way, the world has changed beyond all recognition in the last 50 years. In November 1969 the world watched and wondered at the successful Apollo 12 moon landing. Technology was changing, and fast, and so was healthcare. In the early 1970s only one in four cancer patients in the UK could be expected to survive their disease for 10 years or more. That figure is now two in four. In 1969 infant mortality in this country was at 18.32 per 1,000 births. It now stands at 3.7.

Why this context—this long, 50-year view of the world and medical advance? Because looking back from here to that black-and-white age, it is the things that haven't changed that serve to shock us the most. Over that period, one thing has not changed: survival rates for pancreatic cancer have not changed. Despite all the progress we've made in technology, communications and in healthcare, for nearly the entire lifetime of the NHS the dial has not shifted when it comes to this lowest surviving and quickest killing cancer.

The statistics—the unmoving statistics—are plentiful and shocking. Pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the UK, but receives just 1 per cent of research funding. Due to late diagnosis, seven out of 10 people with pancreatic cancer will never receive any treatment, and only one in 10 will receive surgery, which is the only curative solution. Fewer than 6 per cent of those affected in Wales will survive for longer than five years—take a moment to reflect on that.

In the shadow of these numbers are real people, real stories and very real suffering. So, I want to use the remainder of my remarks today to give voice to three stories—a bereaved relative, doughty campaigners and a leading clinician. Three stories that combine to make one point: we must do better.

First, I want to tell the story of my constituent Linda. I want you to imagine what Linda's Christmas was like 10 years ago. Having lost her cousin, Noel, and her uncle, Robert, to pancreatic cancer in recent years—both died within weeks of their diagnosis, despite being given years to live—Linda was now faced with the uncertainty of her seriously unwell mother. She'd gone through two years of poor health, various treatments and uncertain diagnosis. Then, 10 years ago, she suffered a rapid decline over the Christmas period, only to be told in January 2010 that she too had tumours on her pancreas, liver and stomach. The discovery was too late. There was nothing the doctors could do—that dreaded phrase: 'We'll make her as comfortable as we can.'

Linda pays tribute to the care given by nurses when her mum got home for her final three weeks, and to her own daughter, who held it together for her nan until she was out of sight and off the ward, when she could safely break her heart in her mum's arms. Linda is still angry—rightly angry—that her mum heard her diagnosis alone, that she didn't hear about the trials available, that no-one thought, through those crucial months, about the possibility of a family connection, but, most of all, that she hears the same stories today. Linda has turned her hurt into a campaigning zeal that would put any politician in the shade. Linda and her family deserve to hear about more progress than we've made in the last five years, let alone the last 50.

The second story comes from Bilal Al-Sarireh, the clinical lead in Wales on pancreatic cancer, and I want to thank him for working with my office to give a detailed update on the challenges that exist today. Professor Al-Sarireh says that, having seen such huge progress since establishing Wales's first specialist centre a decade ago, he now worries that he is letting patients down because they cannot access treatment fast enough, regardless of how quick or how urgent their diagnosis. I'm sure the Minister will agree with me that we never want to hear clinicians express those feelings of guilt and regret for circumstances they cannot control. I hope that the Minister will look seriously at the concerns being raised by the professor about the challenges facing Wales's national centre, where the numbers of patients being offered curative surgery is dropping from around 20 per cent to under 15 per cent, and where palliative bypasses are now on the increase, a reflection of two challenges.

The first is the question of ensuring that funding is matching increased demand, and, secondly, in terms of logistics, Wales is currently an outlier when it comes to having standalone centres for specialist treatment of liver and pancreatic disease. Can the Minister therefore consider establishing a single hepatopancreatobiliary cancer centre in Wales? According to experts, this will help recruit, retain and sustain the right specialists and bring the right skills to Wales to make real progress on reducing waiting lists. Time is of the essence: that is the message you hear time and time again from all those touched by pancreatic cancer.

And, finally, I want to pay tribute to Nick and Wendy Horler, who run Blaenavon post office in my constituency. Once again this year, they have lit up their premises in purple lights to mark Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Like many campaigners we will hear about today, they have done this year in, year out. Like Linda and her family, like Professor Bilal Al-Sarireh and his team, and so many others gathered here today, the Horlers are waiting to see what the years of campaigning and raising awareness will deliver. Three stories with one point: we must do better. For sufferers of pancreatic cancer, time is always of the essence. Too much time has now passed with too few strides made in treatment, survival rates and awareness. I urge all Members to support today's motion to give more time, more hope, to the people impacted by this terrible disease. Thank you.