I thank Lynne, Dai and David for tabling this important debate. As the other contributors have pointed out, pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of all the cancers, yet the majority of people have never heard of it. I became acutely aware of pancreatic cancer over 30 years ago, when doctors discovered a tumour on my pancreas. Thankfully, in my case, the tumour was benign, but the symptoms that I had were awful: it was falling down, it was fainting without any awareness at all, because the level of insulin had been totally disrupted. I didn't know what was wrong, and it took two years to diagnose. I had insulinoma, rather than cancer, but, until that point, I was unaware of pancreatic cancer.

Sadly, 93 per cent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within five years, and a quarter of those diagnosed die within the month. Unfortunately, this is mainly as a result of lack of awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease. Over two thirds of adults in the UK are unaware of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK. Because of this and the fact that the disease has non-specific symptoms, early diagnosis is almost impossible, and, as with all other cancers, early diagnosis is key to long-term survival.

This is why I'm happy to support this motion today and play a small role in promoting awareness of the disease. However, we have to do more. We need a dedicated public awareness campaign. There have been national public information campaigns for lung cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer and bladder cancer, but no such campaign for pancreatic cancer. There is no simple screening test for this awful disease, so we have to rely on members of the public being aware of any symptoms and trying to seek help. Thank you.