It's a pleasure to follow on from Nick and from Dai, and from the work of the cross-party group this year, who have worked with the support of the Stroke Association, providing the backbone of the secretariat, to go out and listen to people who themselves have experienced stroke during the pandemic, but also their family, their friends, their carers and their loved ones as well. It has been tough, and the statistics show how tough it will be, and I'll turn to them in a moment. But what it clearly shows, as both Dai and Nick and others will say as well, in following me, is that we need now that refreshed new stroke delivery plan, because, even before now, even before the pandemic, we didn't have universally good, universally strong provision of stroke support and care services, let alone those hyper acute stroke units across Wales. We hadn't seen the progress that we wanted to see, so, if the pandemic has done anything, it has shown even more acutely the need to progress on these measures. We haven't seen as much progress as we wanted to, and I think, in bringing forward a new national plan for stroke, which we so much need—a delivery plan—we need those hyper acute stroke units to be right at the forefront of that.

Let me put some of the facts that we found through the survey that we did of people experiencing stroke. Sixty-five per cent of stroke survivors in Wales told the Stroke Association they had received less care and support during the pandemic. It showed as well that, despite 50 per cent—half of stroke survivors—having therapy appointments cancelled, only less than a quarter went on to receive therapy over the phone or online. Now, I am grateful, I have to say, for having a brilliant Stroke Association in my area who, through the years, have been tremendously good at providing support and signposting support for local people in the Bridgend area, but look at what has happened during the pandemic. Not only is that support more threadbare, but the ability as well of those Stroke Association support services to signpost as well has been lessened as well. And the mental health impacts: nearly 70 per cent, seven out of 10, of those surveyed are quite anxious or depressed, and nearly 57 per cent of carers felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.

So, I think the message is very clear: services were stretched already; those hyper acute units, we haven't seen the progress that we wanted to see; the therapy services that were not universally consistent and good right across Wales. So, if anything now, on the back of the CPG's work, on the back of the Stroke Association's work and on the back of this pandemic, we call on Government as a cross-party group to put a new urgency behind this work, and for local health boards to actually take forward their work on hyper acute units as well, and support services. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd.