Thank you to Mabon for bringing this motion before us today. The people of Wales wait too long for cancer treatment, and that impacts on the likelihood of survival. That's the fundamental truth of the matter that is the background to this motion today, and at the heart of the solution is the need for a new national cancer plan for Wales. The Minister has heard those regular demands from various stakeholders that we need such a plan; the quality statement for cancer doesn't provide us with the strategy, the clear action plan, that we need. We needed such a strategy before the pandemic, and that is so much more the case now.

In the first year of the pandemic, 1,700 fewer people started cancer treatment than we would have expected from figures prior to that. The Minister can come to the Senedd, as she did earlier today in responding to questions from myself, and say that cancer has continued to be a priority throughout the pandemic. I don't doubt that that was the aspiration, but the statistics tell another story, don't they? The Welsh Government's own figures show that 20,000 fewer people had an urgent referral for a cancer diagnosis during the first nine months of the pandemic, as compared to the period prior to that. The pandemic had a substantial impact. One would expect that, of course, to a certain extent, but today we're discussing the response to that. So, we need not to do more of the same thing even; we need to transform services in order to recover from COVID, and we need a new national cancer plan in order to do that. We need diagnostic centres as a matter of urgency. We need to see early screening strengthened, such as the lung health checks, which we know work. We don't need any more evidence that they work; we just need to provide them in Wales. We need a workforce plan. There were large gaps in the workforce prior to the pandemic, and filling those gaps is even more critical than ever now. The workforce is excellent. Anyone who's come across them can't thank them enough for the work that they do, but there are gaps in that workforce and there is huge pressure on those within the workforce that is unsustainable. We need to invest in that workforce, and we need to do that urgently.

I do need to make this point too: we do need to ensure that we make the right investments for the long term for cancer services in Wales. I've written to the Minister recently asking her to look again at and to listen to the views of cancer specialists calling for the co-location of a new cancer centre in the capital city on the same site as the university hospital, following international patterns. Is she truly convinced that the decision taken so far is the best one? Because we must ensure that cancer patients in Wales today and for the future get the best possible services.

Deputy Llywydd, I'm very pleased to support this motion today, because it's another opportunity for us to emphasise the need for a clear focus on something that is such a key part of our health and care services. Mabon mentioned his own experience and his family's experience, and we wish your father well in his battle. Our experience as a family was that the diagnosis came too late for my mother, almost 10 years ago now, and there was no way of her having any treatment at all, so I wish anyone who has the opportunity to access treatment and to battle cancer well. But we can improve people's chance of having that early diagnosis and a timely referral and of having effective treatment and of surviving cancer, but it will only happen with uncompromising determination and a clear national plan.