 Yr gyfnod yw unig ymlaen i bwysig, ymlaen gynnwys peidio i Llanfa 4-8-21, yn y mwyntau Nentsiwnй Cymru. Adon Fygin�ризol gwestiwch ar gyfer mae'n sgwrs amdano i amser yn cael ei gwyllus rhamun i ni o newydd. I invite members to participate, to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible, and I call on Miles Briggs to open the debate for around seven minutes to the breaks. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I start by thanking members for supporting my motion for debate today? I'd also like to invite and highlight to members the photo call at the bottom of the Garden Lobby steps at 1.35 following the debate, and I hope members will be able to join us. Deputy Presiding Officer, one of the greatest honours about being an MSP is the opportunity that it presents to meet remarkable people. I think all of us would agree on that. One such person is Jen Hardy, and I'm delighted Jen has joined us today in the public gallery alongside the Empyry the new CEO of Cancer Card. I first met Jen back in March 2018 when she successfully campaigned alongside women with incurable breast cancer and the charity Breast Cancer Now to help deliver access to the secondary breast cancer drug at Projetta. I'm pleased that the cabinet secretary said that these discussions continue, and the work of Breast Cancer Now in campaigning is also something that yesterday he was part of. Jen was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable breast cancer on 18 October 2017, after having a CT scan to find out the cause of her paralyzed vocal cord. While searching for cancer support, Jen noticed that there was no single place or online resource that listed the hundreds of different support services, support providers, information channels and free experiences available to people and their families living with cancer. It was this realisation that prompted Jen, who has an IT background, to work to establish Cancer Card to help create that single place, single online point of access for anyone affected by cancer to find the help and support that they need. Cancer Card launched in May of this year and provides a detailed index of support services available, helping individuals to navigate what can often be a complicated and complex world of cancer. It's hard ahead of this debate to believe that Cancer Card didn't actually exist until now. I know that it's incredibly hard to have the difficult conversations with someone living with cancer about their treatment journey. The many and often personal questions that the wife, husband, mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son or friend simply want to ask. That is where Cancer Card is so wonderful. It recognises the questions and support needed to reach more than just the person living with cancer, but indeed their partners, families and friends, employers and professionals as well. It's available any time of day and night when questions will be asked or answers and support is sought. It also acts as a directory for key contacts for all UK cancer charities and support services. Deputy Presiding Officer, one in two of us will develop cancer in our lifetimes. In my time over the last six years, as the co-chair of the Parliament's cross-party group on cancer alongside Jackie Baillie, it's been a regular ask of many clinicians, of many charities and groups to improve access, to make the support services more readily available. That is what Cancer Card offers. The significance of a cancer diagnosis on an individual's life is immense, with the potential to render them feeling lost, frustrated, fatigued, isolated or financially disadvantaged when trying to obtain information of a non-medical but nonetheless essential nature. At a time when people living with cancer in their families need the most support, it can often be difficult to find the right information at the right time for the right person. Cancer Card seeks to address this through the online support hub, where those affected by cancer find invaluable insights from the cancer card community and access to local and national cancer support charities and services, including financial help, exercise classes, counselling and local support networks. The advanced search and filtering options also allow users to create a bespoke search based on their individual needs. I think that that's very important. For those who have not had the opportunity to see for yourselves, I'd ask you to please visit cancercard.org.uk. Deputy Presiding Officer, I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute and thanks to all those charities and organisations that provide information, help and advice to people and families living with cancer. We owe these organisations a huge debt of gratitude and the difference they are making to people's lives and those living with cancer is so significant across our country right now. I believe that Cancer Card can and will indeed elevate cancer support charities and services and help to promote their invaluable offering. There is no cost to users or charities for the services listed and indeed for local groups, I think that this is going to present a great opportunity to highlight what is available in different localities across Scotland. Deputy Presiding Officer, to close, the Scottish Government is currently undertaking work on the new cancer strategy and I welcome that. I believe that this does now present an opportunity to reset and reconsider how support and advice is provided in Scotland and across the UK and how, especially during and following the pandemic, access has shifted online. I hope that the new strategy can embrace cancer cards and that this fresh and new approach can indeed provide the information advice services to people living with cancer and their families and friends so desperately need and want to access. Thank you to members for allowing this debate to take place and look forward to hearing contributions this afternoon. We now move to the open debate. I call First Kenneth Gibson to be followed by Jackie Baillie for around four minutes, Mr Gibson. Thank you Presiding Officer and I congratulate Miles Briggs for securing this afternoon's debating time. We all know that cancer is one of the major causes of disease and death in Scotland with more than 30,000 patients diagnosed and over 16,000 people dying from cancer recorded every year. Indeed, sadly, half of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage throughout our lives. Unfortunately, unprecedented challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic have also had a significant impact on cancer treatment, ranging from temporary pauses in screening programmes to all your waits for CT scans and colonoscopies, threatening the steady progress made in cutting cancer mortality rates in recent years. New research published in the Lancet oncology on Monday showed that countries with cancer policies that are consistent over time are most successful in improving survival across a range of cancer types. Scotland has fared better than the other UK nations but still lags behind countries like Denmark, which is amongst the highest increase in survival rates after maintaining a cross-party consensus on policy and the level of investment required. That being said, I welcome the establishment of cancer carbon Scotland and congratulate Jen Hardy on our tireless work in setting up this online hub after being diagnosed with stage 4 incurable metastastic breast cancer in October 2017. Throughout her lived experience and by navigating the information support available, Jen found that there was no all-encompassing hub to bring together the numerous cancer charities and support services that are out there. That gap is what cancer card seeks to fill and does fill. What I found particularly interesting while browsing the new cancer card website is how easy it is now to find the tale of support right for each individual as Miles Briggs highlighted. Depending on the type of cancer one or a loved one has, their location and relationship with cancer. Being diagnosed with cancer is understandable. A huge shock to most people and easing access to the right resource will make an already highly stressful and worrying time a little less difficult. Videos and blogs from people who have survived cancer before can also help to provide some reassurance. In 2010, my twin sister had breast cancer so virulent that she was operated on within 72 hours of her initial diagnosis. Janice had radiotherapy chemo and has now been cancer free for more than 11 years. The big C, as John Wayne used to famously call it, need not be a terminal diagnosis if caught early and or treated aggressively. I also welcome cancer cards vision of supporting everyone affected by cancer with help being directed not only to the patient but their partner, family members, friends and employers. I hope that the new director will be of assistance to my constituents by signposting them to the numerous amazing local charities and support services available across Ayrshire and Arn. That includes Ayrshire's leading cancer charity, Ayrshire Cancer Support, which provides practical help and emotional support to people affected by cancer, including transport and complementary therapies. The same applies to Arn's Cancer Support Trust, which supports cancer patients and their families with the very unique challenges that island life can pose. Not only do they offer counselling and wellbeing support, but volunteers also pick up Arn and Axe at Drosan Harbour, take them to a mainland hospital, wait or come back to take them on their return ferry to Arn where transport can also be arranged to and from the ferry terminal. I thank everyone involved in local charities for their efforts and indeed everyone in the third sector is a vitally important partner for the NHS in our efforts to combat cancer. In conclusion, I have no doubt that cancer card will play a vital role in improving patients as well as family members and friends' access to the many vital resources that are out there. Signposting them to the local charity or support services is best suited to their needs. I will certainly do my bit to make my constituency aware of the help that cancer card can offer. I would once again like to congratulate Jen Hardy on setting up cancer card and Miles Briggs on bringing this important topic to the chamber. Thank you very much. Mr Gibson and I call Jackie Baillie to be followed by Graham Simpson for around four minutes as Baillie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to begin by also congratulating Miles Briggs on securing this member's debate to celebrate the work of cancer card. With one in two people diagnosed with cancer during our lifetime, there are not many of us that can say that we have not been touched by cancer. Whether it is a personal story or that of family and friends, the experience is real and it is often very difficult. A cancer diagnosis comes with a whirlwind of emotion. There is an overwhelming amount of information to be taken at once, accompanied by worries about loved ones and concerns around finances, especially now during the cost of living crisis. Of course, it has an impact on work as many have to give up employment for a period of time. Despite the support that is available, the landscape is new and it is very difficult to navigate for those who have just had a diagnosis, and that is where cancer card comes in, an online hub bringing together all the information that you need. I join with others in congratulating Jen Hardy, Ian Peary and the team, because they have managed the remarkable task of pulling all that information together so that you can find out all that you need to know about receiving support once you have received your diagnosis. This helping hand is going to be invaluable in making people feel less alone at such a hard time, and we are all aware of the pressures being faced by our health service and the work of cancer card is needed now more than ever. Figures for the quarter-ending 30 June 2022 showed performance against the 62-day cancer waiting times target were at their lowest point since records began, with just 76 per cent of patients starting treatment within that target time. It is a target that regretfully has never been met, so we need to do more collectively to deal with that. However, we are also seeing the toll that lockdown has taken on early diagnosis of cancer, with more people presenting with late-stage cancers than before, and it is against that backdrop that cancer card's work truly shines. It is a light in the dark, offering advice and lived experience as well as helping people and their families to navigate this new world and a support for staff that are also stretched to the limit. They are not alone in carrying out this vital work. I want to recognise organisations such as Mcmillan Cancer Support to assist people when their lives have been turned upside down in whatever way is necessary, whether they are having issues with finances or struggling with their mental health. Mary Curie is helping to provide overnight palliative care for cancer patients at home, as well as in their valuable hospice provision. Her nurses care for people in 32 local authority areas in Scotland, and her work ensures that vital research in palliative and end-of-life care continues to be a priority. Of course, cancer research does similarly important work, together with clinicians, looking at improving treatments for the future, funding scientists, doctors and nurses to help to beat cancer sooner. It is the work of those charities and many more that makes an immeasurable difference to the lives of people across the country. They do it because they care and because many of them have experienced the effects of a cancer diagnosis first-hand. We must continue to support charities such as Cancer Card, and because, from 2015 to 2019, something like 141,000 adults in Scotland received a cancer diagnosis and those numbers show no sign of decreasing anytime soon. The fight against cancer continues, but, thanks to the work of Cancer Card and other charities, those battles are not fought alone. For that, we thank them. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Bailey. I now call Graeme Simpson. Again, around four minutes, Mr Simpson. Thank you very much. I also congratulate Miles Briggs for securing this debate. I wanted to speak because most of us will have been affected by cancer in some way, either ourselves or our families or people that are close to us. I am no exception, but I am not going to regale any personal story today. It is just to say that we will all know about cancer and we know the effects it can have. I had a look at, obviously, the website. What was not clear to me that there was a card involved anywhere, but, Deputy Presiding Officer, there is a card. Miles Briggs handed me the card earlier. The idea is that, when somebody is diagnosed with cancer anywhere in Scotland, they will be given the card. On the back, there is a barcode, so you can scan that, and that will take you to the website. I have tried it and it works. When you get to the website, of course, as you have heard already, that is basically a one-stop shop of services across Scotland. I think that it is a fantastic resource that it can be built on. Obviously, when you get a diagnosis of cancer, there is that feeling of despair. What do I do now? You really need to know where to turn. The website is really good, because it is localised. There are services throughout Scotland in my own patch in Lanarkshire. We have got listed places like Kilbride Hospice, Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust, Lanarkshire Carers, Lanarkshire Speak Easy Group—that is for people who have got throat cancer, Maggies Lanarkshire and Leukemia Care, Movedmore North Lanarkshire, Strathcarron Hospice—and, of course, there will be more groups out there. I think that this is really good, and I congratulate Jen Hardy for getting it set up. I think that we can build on it. It needs to be promoted. What we actually need—and I do not know whether this is in place yet—is just that situation that I described at the start. When somebody is diagnosed, everybody should be given this so that they are signposted to those local and national services. I think that that would be a great comfort and help to people. Once again, I congratulate Miles Briggs and Jen Hardy for getting this going. I thank Miles Briggs for securing debating time this afternoon on what is a really important subject. One that is clearly going by the contributions and unsurprisingly close to everybody's heart, for many personal reasons, but even then, if you have not had a personal experience of cancer or somebody close to you, even hearing the stories of those who have, I know that we have all been moved often to tears hearing some of the challenges those who have had a cancer diagnosis over the years have had to face. I offer my full support to everything that has been said by every single contributor this afternoon, and I join each and every one of them in paying tribute to Jen Hardy, who is in our gallery today, alongside Ian Piri, who is the first CEO of cancer card. Miles Briggs is right. There are tough times in the job, for sure, but one of the best parts of the job for all of us as members of the Scottish Parliament is the people that we get to meet and the phenomenal stories that we hear along the way. I enjoy meeting everybody, of course, that I do end up meeting, but there are certain people who have an energy of it. They immediately light up the room and that energy stays with them for quite a while. I can think of a number of people that I have met over the years like that. Jen Hardy is absolutely one of those people that I only met her yesterday, but I could feel from her the enthusiasm for what she was doing and the energy from her in terms of wanting to improve the lives and give support to others that have had a cancer diagnosis. Thankfully, I have never had a personal diagnosis. I have known many people close to me that have, but nobody would fault Jen for just dealing with life and getting on with life in her own way and just dealing with the difficulties that a diagnosis such as hers throws up. She undoubtedly is getting on with life, but what she is doing is trying to do this very well, supporting others through the efforts of cancer card. For that, I pay her all the tribute in the world that I possibly can for the fact that she is using her time to make sure that other people right across the country have support. I wanted to pick up a couple of points that were raised by colleagues during this debate. I have seen the best ideas in my time as an MSP in my time as a Government. The best ideas are always those that are the most simple. I think that all of us can think of examples of that. Mary's Meals is a great example. It is a simple idea, a simple concept that is so effective that cancer card is in the same bracket. It is a simple idea. It is a one-stop shop of information that people can access. If you have not been to the cancer card website, please do go on it. You put in your location, you put in some basic information about what cancer type you are suffering from or would like support in relation to. A couple of clicks later, you get a webpage giving you access, contact details to those support groups that are closest to you. It is a simple idea that is really effective. What I hear from a number of third sector cancer support organisations' charities is that people do not hear about that support until we are down the line in terms of their cancer journey. An example of that was when I recently visited the Maggie Centre in Edinburgh. I think that it will be known by many, probably visited by a number of people across the chamber. They told me that they would not need to do any fundraising if they had a pound for every time that somebody walked through the door and said, I wish I had known about you guys sooner and earlier. We do not want that to be the case. We want people to have information on diagnosis and that support, as Graham Simpson rightly said, given that information so that they can access that support right away. We have to think about the point that Jackie Bailey made and I think that she made it well. We have heard from people who have had a diagnosis that when they get that information, many of them will go almost into a state of shock. They will not necessarily absorb all the information that they are receiving. It is really important that we follow up and the NHS follows up with those individuals and make sure that we are giving them the information about the support, not just once, but by giving the card once, although I think that that is an excellent idea. I will take that one away and I will address some of the points in that regard shortly. We should be making sure that we are going back and going back and going back to make sure that those individuals get the support that they require. Miles Briggs asked a very reasonable question about the new cancer strategy. I think that this debate is taking place at a really opportun time because we are very much in the development phase of that new cancer strategy. I am certain that many organisations and individuals have inputted to the consultation of that strategy. However, I can give him an absolute commitment that how support is accessed is going to be a key part of that strategy. Absolutely, we will consider how cancer card can be a part of that support that is offered. How do we ensure that our clinical colleagues know about cancer card as well? All good and well, us knowing about it and having public knowledge is really important. Our clinicians know about it too because they are often the ones that are giving that really difficult news to somebody about a cancer diagnosis. I also agree with the points that I made about third sector support being more important than ever before. That was the case even pre-pandemic, certainly since the challenges that the pandemic has brought to bear. That is exceptionally important. I agree with the points that I made about early diagnosis too and how important that can be. That is why we are investing in our rapid cancer diagnostic services. In fact, the First Minister announced two additional rapid cancer diagnostic services, so that people can get that earlier diagnosis sooner, given that we know through really difficult decisions that we had to make during the pandemic that we have this backlog of diagnostics when it comes to cancers. At the end, the Deputy Presiding Officer, by finishing where I started, that is to commend Jen Hardy for the work that she has done in relation to cancer card and what has been achieved so far. As I said, it is really easy to use the website Graham Simpson. It is a QR code on the back of the card as opposed to a bar code, but we will bring Graham Simpson into the 21st century kicking or screaming. However, if they scan that QR code, they get immediate access to that website. It does not just focus on the patients. If you have seen the website, it also gives support and access to support, I should say, for partners, for families and employers, as well as all who have different support needs and information needs as well. This resource is a fantastic addition to the support that we already provide. As I said, I have given a commitment here to see how we can incorporate that in the future work that we do in terms of our strategy. I again thank Miles Briggs for securing this time, but I once again congratulate Jen and the team cancer card for all the incredible work that they have done. I wish her every best of health in the future. I wish the cancer card charity every success in the future and their work will help a great many people in the future. I am certain of that. Thank you, cabinet secretary. A whole new exciting world of QR codes has just opened up for Mr Simpson, but that concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting of parliament until 2.30.