 The final item of business this evening is a member's business debate on motion 8731 in the name of David Torrance on race for life celebrates 30-year anniversary. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, but I invite members wishing to participate to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I invite David Torrance to open the debate around seven minutes, Mr Torrance. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is my great pleasure to open the member's business debate this evening on race for life and to recognise the work of Cancer Research UK thus to support our constituents. I thank my colleagues for reporting the motion, allowing this debate to go ahead. This widespread sport is a testament to thousands of participants and volunteers who have been involved in race for life events across our country over the past 30 years and pays tribute to the huge success of this vitally important initiative. I also thank Emily and Sorsha from Cancer Research UK for taking time to travel to Parliament today for this debate, and I welcome them to the chamber. This debate gives us an opportunity to acknowledge invaluable work undertaken by race for life and Cancer Research UK and the staff, volunteers and participants who form the backbone of this initiative. The hard work that happens behind the scenes to organise and run these events is a great achievement. For three decades, Cancer Research UK and race for life has provided an opportunity for our communities to raise money for life-saving cancer research. The track record is seriously impressive. If 30 years over 10 million participants have taken part in race for life events, raising over 940 million towards life-saving cancer research and supporting more than 130,000 cancer patients across the country with radiotherapy every year. All race for life sponsorship goes towards Cancer Research UK life-saving work, funding laboratories, tests and treatments for all 200 types of cancer. Thanks to significant investment, dedication and research, we have been notable improvements in early cancer diagnostic and treatment across Scotland. The initiatives spearheaded by our Government and delivered by exceptional NSH staff are making a difference in the lives of very people that we are here to represent. We have made a significant process of improving survival rates of cancer in recent years, thanks to the tireless work of researchers, medical professions, campaigners and thousands of fundraising efforts such as race for life. We cannot forget the heart and soul of race for life, its participants and astonishing 10 million individuals have done their running shoes, sweat bands and pink ribbons to stand up against cancer. We come from all walks of life, all levels of fitness, all backgrounds and all genders, unified by a shared objective to improve cancer research and ultimately beat cancer. It is our collective spirit, our dedication and our selfish endeavour that we really hear to honour and celebrate today. Earlier this month, more than 1,600 people took part in 2023 race for life in the beverage part and recorded my constituency. We raised an inspiring sum of 92,000 for cancer research and I was delighted to meet many of them and participate at the finish line to award them their medals. As anyone who has attended race for life events will know, the atmosphere is deeply moving as communities come together to celebrate its lives of its dear to them. From the moment I arrived, the park was a wash of colour, from a sea of pink t-shirts to colorful wigs and even a dog and a tutu. Every single person was there for the same reason, to have fun and remember our lives and experience of those they loved. It is easy to get swept away with the facts and figures. However, the reality of this terrible disease really hit home when I was speaking to participants about the stories and their motivation for signing up. Stories such as the 11-year-old Cecia O'Harlane from Fife, who was chosen as a VIP starter to sound the horn at the start of events in Cercodi. Earlier this year, Cecia was denies those with Hodgkin Lymphomia, a cancer of white blood cells. She stood at the start line and cheered on the crowd, which included her mum, sister and brother. Also participating was Jonah Kedde. She was running in memory of her mum, Sheena, a nurse from Cercodi Victoria hospital, who died from breast cancer last year. Speaking after the race, she said, I was thinking of my mum every step of the way today. This was echoed time and time again as I spoke to people who shared their stories with me, with comments such as, I know my dad would be proud of me right now, and today I felt my best friend was still here running beside me. Then there are those who are back cancer themselves and one who are running to show others that his crucial disease can be beaten. I was left in awe of their bravery and determination. I cannot express enough how proud I am of constituents who participate in these events. Fundraise, which helps scientists find new ways to prevent dinos and treat cancer, helps saving more lives. Each and every individual is a beacon of hope and a symbol of resistance against cancer. I would like also to acknowledge the phank and digital organisers, and the tireless volunteers who make these events possible. Cancer touches all of us at one point or another, but personal experiences are through our loved ones, neighbours or colleagues. The funds raised for life events have been and will continue to be instrumental in groundbreaking research, providing resources and tools necessary to continue our fight against cancer. The funding conducts a wide array of cancer services, including gloves, which help scientists to stay safe while in the lab, and microscopes and equipment, which are used to measure the size of tumours and learn how we grow, and invaluable cancer chat, which helps thousands of people who are affected by cancer and go through very challenging times. Ms Groundbreaking Work, supported by events such as Race for Life, is contributing to more people who are surviving cancer. We cannot underestimate the importance of ensuring that the voices and experience of people affected by cancer are at the heart of a policy, so many of our constituents are impacted by cancer, and it is crucial that they are at the centre of our approach going forward. Thousands of families and our communities have faced indescribable pain of losing loved ones to a dreadful disease. We look to them to strive for continuous improvements in our healthcare services, particularly in the field of cancer research. I am grateful that Scotland's commitment to investing in a detect cancer early programme with the state of our diagnostic equipment is further enabling early detection. I also note the contribution of transforming cancer care programme, a first of its kind in the UK, in partnership with Macmillan, to improve the services offered by cancer patients. A significant breakthrough has been rolled out in rapid diagnostic centres across Scotland, including one in Victoria hospital Concordia in my constituency. We centres aim to provide the diagnostic of all clear within 20 days of our referral, to make the process faster and less anxiety-provoking for those involved. While we celebrate the achievements that we cannot afford to be complacent, we still face challenges. We need to tackle health inequalities that contribute to lower cancer survival rates in more deprived areas, and the road ahead is still long and filled with challenges. But optimism of race for life events is infectious, and I am a firm in my belief that, in our collective ability to rise to a challenge, Scotland has a strong foundation to build on to improve cancer outcomes, and I am incredibly grateful for the brilliant work of Cancer Research UK to help Scotland to continue to drive its progress. I conclude my contribution to this debate with a sense of pride and admiration as we honour and celebrate the 30th anniversary of our race for life. In this circus, it has touched the lives of thousands of people across Scotland. It is a pleasure to be able to formally acknowledge the incredible work done by Race for Life and by Cancer Research UK that I like to extend my heartfelt grateful to participants, volunteers and supporters of this wonderful initiative. I also extend my best wishes to everyone across Scotland taking part in the upcoming race for life events this year. Thank you, Mr Torrance. We now move to the open debate. I call Chris Hoy to be followed by Jackie Dunbar around four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank David Torrance for bringing forward this very important debate to recognise the 30th anniversary of Cancer Research UK's race for life. Every year tens of thousands of Scots are diagnosed with cancer, a number that has only set to rise in the coming decades. Every one of us across the chamber and everyone across the country will have had their life touched by the impact of cancer. Today, I think of my late friend and neighbour Sue in London. Sue died of cancer far too young. She left behind family and friends and a void among us. My partner's father, Alf, Alf fellow, was very difficult to treat cancer while visiting my partner Mark and myself when we lived in Asia. He then faced a grueling 16-hour flight back to Edinburgh, accompanied by a doctor and Mark's mum, Ann. The weeks that followed were difficult for our family and for Ann and Alf's many friends, some of whom visited Alf in his last few days at home in Portobello. As the family came to Alf's bedside, so too did a team from Marie Curie who helped nurse Alf providing support to Mark and his sister Louise. It was then that I was struck by just how important those organisations often charities are and the support that they give to those living with cancer and, of course, to those families who are around them. Sadly, too many of us have only memories of a loved one who suffered from cancer. Thankfully, many more have the comfort of family or friends who have survived cancer and who have come through the treatment and are now living healthy and normal lives. They do so thanks to the huge efforts of a wide range of charities, clinicians and, of course, our NHS. That is why it is hugely important that we in this Parliament recognise those efforts and, particularly today, Cancer Research UK. Thirty years ago, Cancer Research UK established Race for Life, a series of fundraising events right across the UK that are open to everyone. People of all skill levels, all ages, all walks of life, all can come together to celebrate the collective efforts to combat cancer and to promote healthy living and wellness, too. The Race for Life is all about celebrating life and those who face or who have faced cancer. Runners are encouraged to wear bright clothing and race at their own speed to raise funds for life-saving cancer research. The Race has raised more than £940 million towards cancer research in the UK over its three decades in operation. This year, there will be events in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Fife, Falkirk, Stirling and in Inverness to help to fight cancer. It is vitally important that we in this Parliament do our bit to raise the profile of initiatives such as that. I would strongly encourage my constituents and anyone interested to donate or to take part in the event in future years. Somebody said to me today, would I be doing it? I think that I can commit now to doing it. I may be walking it, but I can commit to doing it. Race for Life has helped Cancer Research UK to fund over £33 million worth of cancer research in Scotland last year. That money has supported laboratories and institutions in Glasgow and Edinburgh and hundreds of scientists, doctors and nurses across Scotland. The Race has offered a critical lifeline for cancer researchers and patients right across Scotland. That is why I would like to say thank you and express the thanks of my constituents to all those who have participated and supported Race for Life over the last 30 years. Each and every one of us who has lost someone to cancer has a good reason to want this commitment to be redoubled and for further progress to be made in combating cancer. We hope that that continues for another 30 years to come. Thank you, Mr Hoy. That commitment is now on the parliamentary record. I now call Jackie Dunbar to be followed by Carolyn Walker in around four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I begin by thanking my friend and colleague David Torrance for securing this member's debate this evening. I also take this opportunity to thank Cancer Research UK for all the hard work that they have done and continue to do so on a daily basis. David Torrance spoke about pink wigs in his opening speech. I laughed and I apologise, because I know that it is a serious subject. However, it brought to mind the day that Kevin Stewart, MSP and I, when we were both councillors, decided to don pink curly wigs and walk the floors of Marshall College's Rattlenhauer Tins. It is before your time to get money for cancer research. I still have those photographs, so if anybody wants to make donations to cancer research, I am glad that we will show them to them. I thank Jackie Dunbar for taking that intervention. I am just going to ask Jackie Dunbar if she will commit to doing the race like Craig here. I will maybe even put £50 into the pot. I have already done it, but I am going to come on to the Aberdeen one as well. Cancer affects us all, in some shape or form, and it touches all of us at some time or another. It is a cruel disease that we would all like to banish to the history books. One day at a time, one step at a time, we will beat cancer, we just have to. Race for Life is celebrating its 30th year and has been a huge success. It started as a women's only event in Battersea in 1994, where 750 participants raised £48,000. Since then, it has grown into a series of hundreds of events with more than 10 million folk having taken part in that time, raising more than £940 million, as we have heard, which helps fund research into more than 200 types of cancer. In 2019, for the first time, Race for Life opened its doors to men to participate in, so if Douglas Lums wants to join me, he is more than welcome to. Making it truly an inclusive event, giving folk the chance to come together with their family and friends and join the movement to help beat cancer. Many moons ago, I was one of the 10 million folk who have taken part. I took part in the Aberdeen Race for Life when they were being held at Hazelhead Park, which shows you just how long ago that was, as it is now being held down at the beach in Aberdeen. My daughter Dawn and I took part for a number of reasons. Dawn was keen to take part to celebrate her auntie, Francis Walker, who was a warrior at kicking breast cancer right. Francis, I am delighted to say, is still a cancer-free warrior, living life to the full, enjoying spending time with her grandchildren. While wanting to celebrate Francis, I also wanted to do it in memory of my mum, who Dawn never got to meet. My mum died at the very young age of 34 to a variant cancer. I still wish to this day that Dawn was able to meet her grandma bar, but cancer just did not allow it. This year's Aberdeen event will take place in July 2, and I have just heard that I am doing it, at 10am meeting at the Kingslinks beach esplanade. Even if folk cannot manage to take part themselves, they can still go down and support those who can. Although I will say that it is never too late to register and take part. For everyone who takes part, sponsors, raises money or whatever it is they do to help to beat this vile and awful disease, I sincerely say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope that you and Mr Lums did not enjoy your race for life together. I thank David Torrance for bringing this debate to the chamber, allowing us to again talk about the very important issue of changing the outcomes from cancer. In this chamber it is right that we use much of our members' debate time discussing cancer treatment and the research needed to ensure that we fight and beat this devastating disease. When you say out loud the figures of cancer diagnosis, we know why, as parliamentarians, we spend so much time discussing, debating and analysing treatment paths. There were 35,379 new cancers registered in Scotland in 2021. That is an increase of 5.5 per cent compared with 2019. It is in line with a long-term trend of increasing number of cancer diagnoses over time. The most important thing when thinking of those numbers is to think of the person and families behind those numbers. Every number is a person who will be unsure of what is ahead of them in the days, weeks and months ahead. We know that cancer can affect people physically, emotionally and financially and it has a huge emotional challenge for family and friends as well. That is why volunteering and participating in communal events is so appealing for people. While fundraising, one gets the opportunity to participate in a group event, space to share experiences, stories and perhaps find some common ground. The lovely thing about race for life is that all fitness levels are encouraged to do what they can to contribute to the common goal of raising money towards cancer research. We need research into cancer now more than ever. Research has changed the goalposts and tipped the dial in the correct direction. Over the past 40 years, cancer survival rates in the UK have doubled. In the 1970s, just one in four people survived their disease for 10 years or more. Today, two in four survive. Cancer research UK has a clear goal. I want to accelerate progress and see three in four patients survive the disease by 2034. We are lucky to have excellent research facilities in our education departments. I understand cancer research UK-lead research in areas such as cancer biology, cancer drugs, cancer trials, early diagnosis, immunotherapy, new technologies, personalised medication prevention and radiotherapy. However, it would be wrong not to take this opportunity to note that cancer research UK did make a decision to end core funding at the Beats in the west of Scotland, which is one of the largest clinical trial units in Scotland. We need to continue investing in those areas. It is important that we recognise that Scotland can hold the trials and that it is welcome when research funding is placed in Scotland. The last point that I wish to raise is the one that I have repeatedly raised is the inequalities in prevention care and access to cancer care treatments. For many of the most marginalised in our society, the chances of getting cancer and their experiences and outcomes of cancer are worse because of factors and circumstances beyond their control. Key to reducing cancers and cancer inequalities is acknowledging and dealing with the root causes that blight many of our communities. Across Scotland, we know that the most deprived populations have worse experiences and outcomes than least deprived areas. In Scotland, we must act with purpose to reverse those concerns. Early detection gives those who have cancer the best chance of life. We must use events such as race for life not only to raise awareness of the disease and to focus on the importance of research but also as a reminder of the long way we have to go in addressing health inequalities. I really appreciate all the contributions this evening in the chamber and I wish everyone taking part in race for life the very best. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much, Ms Malkin. I now invite Jenny Minter to respond to the debate minister around seven minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'd also like to give my heartfelt thanks to my colleague David Torrance for bringing this motion to the chamber today and allowing us all to recognise the value of race for life. I'd also like to welcome and thank you very much for all the work that you do to Emily and Sorchan. It's great that you've been able to join us here in our Scottish Parliament and also to all my colleagues for sharing such valuable contributions to the debate. As Craig Hoy said, this is our opportunity and, in fact, it's more than an opportunity, I think it's our purpose to raise awareness of cancer, so thank you for highlighting that. As Carol Malkin said, every number is a person. Certainly, in my role as Minister for Public Health and Women's Health, I have found the personal stories and meeting people really, really important. I appreciate David Torrance's talking about Sheena's daughter and the quote that I felt that my dad would be proud of me doing this. I can reflect personally on that and imagining that my best friend is running beside me. Craig Hoy is talking about the void. I think that that's a really poignant way of describing losses. Jackie Dunbar is celebrating Francis, the warrior, but also in memory of your mum. I thank you very much for sharing those stories with us. I have also reflected very much on the role that charities play with regards to cancer and part of that intersecting team to help researchers, clinicians and the NHS all working together and also with communities. I think that that is really, really important. I am very delighted to mark the 30th anniversary of Race for Life this year. The level of participation and commitment that is shown by all those who join the many events across Scotland and the rest of the UK is so impressive. Many participants consider Race for Life as a way to share their own or their friends or family members' experiences of cancer, as we have heard. Congratulations to every participant in raising the funds to support research. You are making such a difference to the lives of people with cancer right now and in the future. As others have said, Race for Life is an inclusive event. Everyone can participate no matter their fitness level. I know that they have varying lengths of races and some are muddy obstacle courses for adults and children, so I would love to see Jackie, perhaps, doing that with your pink wig on as well. I might even join you. As David Torrance said, it is a recent event in his constituency earlier in May. Also, as the UK's website says, you can sign up as a volunteer if running is not your thing. That brings a whole new energy, smile and passion to the party. Let's help beat cancer. If you are not running, you can volunteer as well. I am aware how truly important Race for Life is to Cancer Research UK, with it being their biggest series of fundraising events, having raised, as others have said, over £940 million seriously impressive. I want to take some time to recognise the importance of cancer research as a role in funding vital and life-saving research into all types of cancer. Here in Scotland, Cancer Research UK currently works in partnership with the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde, Lothian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS boards. Their research work focuses on a number of cancers, including those that unfortunately have poorer outcomes such as brain, pancreatic and liver cancers. The Scottish Government is clear that research is essential if we are to continue to develop new and effective approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In partnership with Cancer Research UK, we have increased funding for the experimental cancer medicine centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Those specialise in the delivery of early-phase cancer clinical trials. The combined Scottish Government and Cancer Research UK funding for the adult and children ECMCs is £4.68 million over five years from the start of this current financial year. As the Minister for Public Health, I must highlight the importance of preventing cancer. I know that this is an area that Cancer Research UK is also particularly keen to address. We recognise the importance of public health initiatives in reducing the risk of ill health, including cancer, to everyone in Scotland. That is why we introduced the minimum unit pricing in May 2018 as one of the actions in our alcohol framework 2018 to tackle alcohol-related harm. We also want everyone in Scotland to eat well and have a healthy weight to help to reduce the impact of a range of diet-related ill health conditions. Raising awareness of cancer through taking part in race for life is particularly appropriate given how important physical activity is for our general health. Being physically active is also one of the most important steps that people of all ages can take for cancer prevention, treatment and control. Where those preventative measures have not had anticipated outcomes, we know that the risk of cancer can increase. Cancer remains a national priority for the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. We are developing an ambitious 10-year cancer strategy to launch very shortly. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. Its visions and aims will be supported by a three-year action plan. Work to develop a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision in Scotland that will outline the future of this programme is nearing completion and will form part of the new cancer strategy. The programme helps to ensure that those with suspected symptoms of cancer are put on the right pathway at the right time. Our aim is to reduce later stage disease so that cancer when detected is more likely to be curable. I thank those who support race for life and the on-going work of Cancer Research UK in funding life-saving research and in awareness raising. For anyone wishing to join this year's race for life events, you can find out more on their website, raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org. I reiterate to members and those who are watching the debate of the Scottish Government's enduring commitment to reduce the burden of cancer in Scotland through a wide range of actions from prevention and early intervention through to strengthening treatment options and providing broader supportive care. As Jackie Dunbar said, one step at a time, one day at a time. Thank you. Thank you very much Minister. That concludes the debate and I close this meeting of Parliament.