Pancreatic Cancer

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 10 December 2019.

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Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 2:16, 10 December 2019

I accept what the First Minister said in the sober and serious answers that he has given to earlier questions, and in contrast very effectively with the pantomime that we had at the beginning of questions today. The fact remains that Wales does have one of the lowest cancer survival rates in the world amongst countries of comparable data. For surviving five years we're thirty fourth out of 36 in the latest figures that I've seen from Pancreatic Cancer UK, whose ribbon I'm wearing today.

I'm sure the First Minister will accept from me that if we look back 10 or 15 years, we looked at prostate cancer in much the same dim light, but tremendous advances have been made in the treatment of prostate cancer in that time and the same could be true with greater priority for pancreatic cancer sufferers as well. I know the Government has been swift to declare a climate emergency; I can't understand therefore why it's feeling in any way inhibited from doing the same thing for pancreatic cancer because this is going to make a tremendous difference potentially to the lives of a large number of people given the incredibly distressing news that this brings to people who suddenly find that they are sufferers. The survival rate for a month is only about 25 per cent, or whatever it is—for a year it's only 25 per cent or so. So, the greater the degree of priority the Government can give to this the better it will be.