The next item on the agenda is the 90-second statements. First up this week is Dawn Bowden. 

Diolch, Llywydd. On 21 February, we marked one of the many significant days in the remarkable history of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. It was on this date in 1804 that the Trevithick steam engine made its first ever rail journey, nine miles from Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff canal. This journey made Richard Trevithick and not George Stephenson the real father of the railways. And such was the scepticism on the part of the Cyfarthfa ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, that he placed a 500 guineas bet with Samuel Homfray from the Penydarren works on whether the train would actually be able to haul 10 tonnes of iron to Abercynon. He lost his bet.

Today, it's through our heritage that we remember this event through the Trevithick trial and, of course—and I remind the Deputy Minister for culture of this—the replica of the Trevithick engine is in Swansea, not in Merthyr Tydfil. There are now significant plans to develop the Cyfarthfa experience under the brand of the Crucible Project. In my view, Richard Trevithick and what he did in Merthyr Tydfil on 21 February 1804 should form an important part of that story. As National Museum Wales states:

'We cannot underestimate the importance of Trevithick's locomotive. In 1800, the fastest a man could travel over land was at a gallop on horseback; a century later, much of the world had an extensive railway system on which trains regularly travelled at speeds of up to sixty miles per hour.'

This

'remarkable transformation, a momentous occasion in world history' was initiated in my constituency in February 1804. Diolch.

Monday 22 February marked the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, an important movement within the country, given that Wales became the first Fairtrade Nation on 6 June 2008. At the heart of fair trade is localism, and I'm proud to be a member of the Abergavenny Fairtrade Forum, which is a vibrant and enthusiastic team. The forum was founded in 2007 and has been very active since then. Over the past few years, I've been honoured to be invited to open various events in Abergavenny, such as the Fairtrade Fortnight finale, organised by local couple, David and Martha Holman, from the charity Love Zimbabwe. However, due to the current restrictions, all public events, such as the fair-trade breakfast and the pancake morning, have had to be cancelled. The forum has several online events, which can be accessed on the group's Facebook page. Fair Trade Wales also has numerous other online activities, which are featured on their website. This year's theme, as established by the Fairtrade Foundation is 'climate resilience' and the challenges posed by climate change to farmers and their workers across the world—something that I know is of great concern to Members here, and of which you'll be fully supportive. I'm pleased that the Senedd has committed to using fair-trade tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits on the Senedd estate, and whilst we're not able to be there at the moment, I do hope that you'll all join me in celebrating this fortnight with a cup of fair-trade tea or coffee at home.

Dr Julian Tudor Hart was one of the most influential and inspirational doctors of the twentieth century. He was a general practitioner who began his career shortly after the birth of the national health service, and most of his working life was spent as a GP serving the deprived mining community at Glyncorrwg, in my constituency of Aberavon. Here, he was able to further his research, combining his training in public health with the everyday care of his patients. He was able to study the effects of planned, anticipatory care over several decades, and thus was a strong advocate for preventative actions to avoid the need for treatment. He understood that effective primary care depends on a solid foundation of trust and continuity amongst all parties. This research led to the production of his paper on the inverse care law, which was published in The Lancet for the first time on 27 February 1971, thus celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this weekend. Dr Tudor Hart's work concluded that people in living in more deprived areas had higher death rates due to people's predisposition towards sickness as a result of circumstances or lack of a correct treatment. It was visionary, and became recognised throughout the world as a major piece of work on health inequalities, stating that the availability of good medical care tended to vary inversely with the needs of the population served. The paper considered the market distribution of medical care to be 'primitive and historically outdated'.

Market forces should not dictate the healthcare of communities. That should be based upon need and not status. I have strong socialist views and believe in this concept, that the need to address health inequalities cannot be owned by any one political party but should be owned by everyone. We frequently praise our fantastic NHS staff as they care for people across Wales, but if we wish to ensure that many people do not need to seek care in the first place, then we must continue to address the challenges that were identified by Dr Tudor Hart in his paper 50 years ago. It is concerning that the inverse care law remains as relevant today as it did 50 years ago. We must all commit to ensuring that it does not remain important over the next 50 years.

Good health is something we all wish for, and often take for granted. When our child is born, we hope for a healthy baby with the requisite number of fingers and toes. As we get older, we expect that medical advances will keep pace with our needs, and, if the worst was to befall, our healthcare system, with its plethora of research, medical interventions, drugs, and, above all, options, will soften the blow. But for those diagnosed with a rare disease, that is not always the case. Research into orphan conditions is often poorly funded, options are limited, and treatments usually incredibly expensive, and, on the grounds of costs and minimum need, often rejected by regulators and Governments. With that in mind, imagine being a SWAN: someone whose condition is so rare that all the science in the world can't pinpoint it—a syndrome without a name.

But there is hope. Today, all four home nations came together, in the week that we mark Rare Disease Day, to discuss the progress made by individual nations on implementing the UK rare diseases framework. In Wales, there have been some extraordinary improvements, but, nonetheless, access to treatments and support for the rare disease community is basically left to a handful of passionate and dedicated clinicians and the tireless efforts of campaigners and organisations such as Genetic Alliance UK, Rare Disease UK and SWAN UK. But we do have the opportunity, and the groundwork is in place. So, I ask that the next Welsh Government take up this baton and make it happen. Whoever you are, you have the ability to ease if not transform lives—please, take the challenge.

Thank you.