I also welcome greatly this debate brought forward by David Rees AM. It is factual that we are making real advances in this country, but it still remains the case, as has been said by many, that Wales is behind comparable countries for cancer survival, despite a decline in death rates. Late detection of many cancers is thought to be the main factor around this lag, and it has been stated by Cancer Research Wales that late diagnosis is both complex and multifactorial, and can result from the lack of awareness of symptoms, patients embarrassed to see their GP, or, commonly, having to make several visits over a large period of time before the GP refers the patient for specialised examination. The red flag system, as has been mentioned by Dai opposite, will aid that medical profession doing that particular task.

The Welsh Government and its health Minister, Vaughan Gething, have understood the importance of this area of delay and also will act to address this very real challenge. The important single cancer pathway introduced in June 2019 as a new metric to measure cancer waiting times will also be an additional factor. But it is imperative that we do build underlying systems and diagnostics within the single cancer pathway to diagnose and treat as many patients as early as possible, and a new cancer strategy, as has been outlined by many, will supersede the current delivery plan—it's a point in time where we could focus on and emphasise this critical early diagnosis as well, and, equally, specialised workforce planning and training around specialised cancer routes, for example, endoscopy and many others.

The new focus on prevention and early diagnosis will be key in catching symptoms of disease early, treating early and improving survival rates, and the new treatment fund and the implementation of the specialist key worker to support cancer patients will aid and improve, again, those current survival rates. But this debate today is not about statistics. As others have stated, this is about real people, like my Dad, who was recently with early-stage bowel cancer. Due to this early diagnosis and an excellent patient-centred care plan, he is now in remission. He is lucky, and his journey must now be further replicated through all new approaches across Wales.