I'd like to thank David for bringing forward this extremely important debate. As a cancer survivor, I can attest to the fact that early diagnosis saves lives, because, without an amazing consultant, backed up by a team of nurses and diagnostic staff at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, I would not be here today. Because having had a mammogram, after which I was dancing out the door because they said there was nothing that had shown up on it, an eagle-eyed consultant called me back and said, 'Can you come back, because something just doesn't seem right, even though it is clear?' And this was because the tumour I had in the breast was a translucent tumour and couldn't be shown up then at that time.

So, I'd like to thank that eagle-eyed consultant for saving my life, as well as all the friends, family and my fiancé then, who has now become my husband—we had a wonderful wedding to celebrate that, and Suzy Davies can vouch for what a happy, wonderful occasion that was, and a celebration for surviving cancer, Suzy, as you can say. So, I thank everyone that was involved in helping me to recover, and it's been 13 years since, so I think this should give an awful lot of people confidence to go forward in the early stages.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as me, and I don't take any day for granted. In Wales we see just under 20,000 people diagnosed with cancer each year, and, sadly, only 50 per cent of those diagnosed with cancer survive more than 10 years. We perform poorly for cancer survival rates compared with other nations, which is why it is vital that we have a comprehensive and ambitious cancer strategy that addresses our shortfalls in the route to early diagnosis.

Early diagnosis is essential for long-term survival and detecting cancer early enough means that survival rates are around 90 per cent. Late diagnosis results in those rates dropping to under 10 per cent. We have an amazing opportunity to do something about that, but changes won't happen overnight. The current cancer delivery plan comes to an end this year, and we can therefore ensure that its replacement is more ambitious, meets the needs of more patients and improves survival rates. There have been amazing developments in cancer diagnostics, such as multiparametric MRI for prostate cancer and the faecal immuno-chemical test, or FIT, for bowel cancer. Both of these improve detection rates and therefore aid early diagnosis, but, due to staffing shortages and regional variation, they're not as effective as they could be. In the case of MPMRI, not every health board provide an MPMRI with dynamic contrast enhancement.

My husband went through two invasive and painful biopsies, twice contracted sepsis and twice went through weeks of painful recovery to try and stave off the increase in sepsis diagnosis, if you like. My husband was told that he had prostate cancer. The words used were, 'It is definitely malignant', after the MPMRI scan, 'and it is located in the right-hand side of the prostate'. Now, nearly two years later, we are still unsure whether he has cancer because, after yet another biopsy, we were told good news—it's not cancer after all. So, he is still going through the diagnostic stage, which—. This is almost—I think it's 18 months to two years now. Sadly, his case is far from unique.

So, we have some slow progress, but efforts are hampered due to a lack of trained radiologists. The Welsh Government have put more money into improving MRI provision, and have created a Welsh imaging academy that will lead to improvements, but does little to improve survival rates in the short to medium term. The lack of strategic workforce planning has also impacted bowel cancer survival rates. The new FIT test has the potential to revolutionise bowel cancer care, but, due to workforce shortages, we have set the testing threshold much lower than other parts of the developed world. It is therefore little wonder that, for bowel cancer, we are 25 out of 29 in Europe, behind many poorer former Soviet bloc countries.

We have to ensure that our new cancer strategy has more ambitious targets, better workforce planning, and strategies to improve screening, uptake and end the postcode lottery. After all, the statistics I have quoted are not entries on a spreadsheet—they are real people: our husbands, our wives, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and colleagues. So, we owe it to them, to every person with cancer, to do better, and I urge Members to support this motion. Thank you.