 If members of the public are leaving the gallery, could you please do so quickly? The final item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 12808, in the name of George Adam on My Life, My MS. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Members who wish to speak in the debate should press their question speak button now. I call on George Adam to open the debate, Mr Adam, seven minutes. At this point, I thank you for your on-going support of the MS community. Before I, there's been much talk of me being an MS champion. Before I was in the Parliament, you were that champion within the Scottish Parliament. I once again thank everyone for their on-going support during MS Awareness Week, because as of this moment, Stacey is currently very happy with the way things are going, but she wants me to remind everyone that there's still plenty of badges, there's still plenty of information at the stall and can you all go there as soon as possible. Last year, I welcomed everyone to Stacey's annual MS debate, because we all know I'm kidding myself on otherwise, because she is the real reason why I'm here talking about this issue today. Once again, she's watching from her balcony position in the public gallery, ensuring that I stay on message and get all the correct points across. I also mentioned last year that it felt like I'd seen from Romeo and Juliet as I continued to speak, and since this year is my MS my life, I would like to add that ours is not a tale of woe like that of Juliet and her Romeo, because although multiple sclerosis is part of our lives—it's amazing what all grade English gets you—it's not limited, either of our ambitions or goals, it's made things more difficult, and we may need to organise a night out as if it's like Normandy DD landings, but MS has not stopped us from doing or achieving anything that will want to do. I recently attended the MS Society Scotland living with MS conference in Glasgow, and I was attended by over 200 people living with MS. I have said before that many of the people in the MS community are very upbeat, refusing to allow this horrible debilitating disease to beat them. I chaired the whole conference and did not hear anyone really complain. This outlook in life is to be commended, but it also causes its problems as a campaigning community. It stops us from being a major part of the on-going political dialogue in the health portfolio, so we need to moan a wee bit more, but this MS awareness week is so important because it gives us the opportunity to see what is happening within the community at present. We need to ensure that the estimated 11,000 people in Scotland with MS have their voices heard. Ironically, it is more women than men who develop MS. The ratio is approximately three to one. I feel like I need to mention the following, because those who live with MS are aware of the following facts. For the record, I would just like to say that multiple sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative condition, which affects the brain and central nervous system. It is also an autoimmune disease, and there is currently no cure. Scotland is among the highest preference rates of MS in the world around one person in every 500. There are three types of relapse remitting MS—primary progressive MS and secondary progressive MS. In my own situation, Stacey had relapse and remitting when we first met, and now it has moved on to a more progressive form of secondary progressive MS. That is how it happens in MS, because everyone is different and all their conditions are different as well. However, during the debate at the Living with MS conference, one of the research communications offers for the MS society, Emily Burns, I felt sorry for her, because she said that it might be genetic. It might be because of the lack of sun, the fact that further north you go from the equator the more incidents you get, but we do not quite know. That is one of the problems that we have, and it becomes quite frustrating for families dealing with it because you do not know that it is not something that you can just find a cure for. At this stage, I would like to highlight some of the challenges that are affecting people with MS at the moment. One of the biggest issues is welfare. As we all know, there is welfare reform at the moment, and there are many people with multiple sclerosis who have difficulty trying to get work. On the negative side, many of them would like to work but cannot work, and they are diagnosed nine times out of ten between the ages of 20 and 40, which is a major part of their working life. I would say that, when you are dealing with the situations with DLA and PIP, the 20-metre rule for a start does not help, because although someone with MS may be able to walk 20 metres, they may spend the rest of the day in bed because of the fatigue in doing that. There is also the fact that many of the so-called experts assessing this do not understand MS and many of the things that can happen. The very pressure of going through this type of system will, in many cases, create an MS attack itself. There is an interesting case when we are talking about my MS and my life. The MS Society has a woman called Audrey Barnett, who has given evidence to this Parliament before. She said that she is diagnosed with MS in 1995 and she is from Inverness. She said that she did not choose to have MS, but my experience of the benefits system made me feel like a scrounger. I worked for the Department of Work and Pensions for 16 years before being accepted for medical retirement, and then she ended up having a situation where she had to fight for the very basic benefits. There are also those good news stories of people who have employers who work very well. Ewan Marshall from West Lothian was diagnosed with MS in 2006. He said that he made the decision to tell his manager straight away, and her reaction was fantastic. I have even been promoted to senior server engineer. Nothing is a problem with my employer as long as I let them know what is happening. One of my main symptoms is fatigue, and it is my biggest enemy at work, but my condition is getting worse, but I have good support package in place at work. It shows that employers can ensure that work with people with MS can ensure that they can still work. One of the many on-going issues that we have is access to medicine. Last year, I brought up the fact that it is not just a case of getting three out of all three of the last year of drugs that have been submitted to the SNP and have been passed for MS. That is great, but there are still many other drugs such as Vampira, which I asked the cabinet secretary about today, which has not been submitted, which has not been put forward, which could make a massive difference in other people's people dealing with MS life. It is quite simple as a difference between someone being able to walk and not walk in the case of drugs in many people's cases. In closing, I would like to say that MS is part of our life. It does not define me. I love my wife Stacey and I would not have achieved as much if I had not had her love and support and guidance over the years. Yes, we live with MS, but it does not control our lives. It is part of it, but it does not define us as a couple. We will continue to dealing with whatever the condition throws up and together, as a community, those living with MS will continue to fight everything that comes in our way. Thank you, Mr Adam. I just say to members that it is likely that we will need to extend the debate because we have so many people who wish to speak. I am intending to allow everybody four minutes, and I hope to get everybody in, but if you do not want to use four minutes, please do not feel obliged to do so. Dennis Robertson, followed by Jenny Marra. I shall heed your words and do my best. I am delighted to take part in this debate this afternoon. When we talk about conditions such as MS, we sometimes think of a generic and it is a disease. We sometimes forget that it is individuals, it is people and it is a person. It is a disease that affects a person and that person deserves that individualism, that person's centred approach to their own lives. When George Adam talks about Stacey in the way that he does, the young romantic that he is trying to be, it reminds me that we all have challenges, but challenges present opportunities. Those with MS, the ones that I certainly know, have a can-do attitude. It is not that they do not want to get on. It is not that they do not want to be part of the world of work that they do. We sometimes, as society, as people with no understanding, little understanding and lack of awareness, put up the barriers. When George Adam talks about the employers, employers need to be educated and employers, if they were only giving people the opportunity to get into work, would see the benefits of that work. A person with a disability or an illness that remains in work sees the benefit more than any other person that is probably working for them at any given time, because that person appreciates that aspect of being part of that work in that community. But what would we have done? We put up barriers, Presiding Officer. Access to work, little-known benefit quite often from the UK Government, but George Adam is right. Those that assess those that are requiring that assistance, whether it be in work or whether it be for motibility, quite often they are looking at a tick list. They do not take that individual, that person-centred approach, to that individual. Presiding Officer, my ask, and I think the ask of this Parliament, is that we treat MS, we treat the person, we accept them as individuals with individual requirements and individual needs. Thank you. I congratulate George Adam for securing this debate today to mark MS Awareness Week. I also thank him for his on-going commitment and that of his wife Stacey as well and for his dedication to the work on this disease that has such an impact on this country. I too have a family connection with MS and know the impact that this condition has on partners, children and parents as well. As we know, Scotland has some of the highest incidence of multiple sclerosis anywhere in the world. There are many people in this country all too aware of this condition and so many families affected by it, but because we still understand so little about the condition, we cannot properly explain why that is so. The research shows that our neighbours across the Atlantic in Canada also appear to have a similar pattern of MS as to Sweden and Denmark, while those warmer climates closer to the equator have extremely low levels. Yet geography is not an explanation in itself with certain ethnic groups having a lower prevalence and MS considerably more common among women. Whether it is genetics or climate, we cannot say for sure. Perhaps one day we will solve this and there are grounds for optimism as we look ahead to how we tackle MS. I understand from the excellent work of the MS Society that there are a number of new potential treatments that are not yet available but in the pipeline, and those were raised at health questions in this chamber earlier. That is no small part down to the extensive campaigning and fundraising that MS Society does to help fund research. Just this week, we learned that scientists in Edinburgh are to receive £2 million for research into stem cells with a view to understanding how MS develops. It is right that we acknowledge the extraordinary work of the MS Society this week. With the number of neurologists and provision of MRI machines growing considerably, we have made significant progress globally in treating and supporting those with MS in recent years. I believe that we can look to the future with some confidence in how we understand this disease, how we treat and support the growing number of people who live with MS, fulfilling their lives and, ultimately, our ambition of curing MS. Can I begin by adding my thanks to George Adam for lodging this motion? All of us in the chamber are aware of his personal circumstances and also know of his commitment to raising awareness of multiple sclerosis and to promoting the best care and treatment for all those whose lives are affected by it. Scotland has one of the highest incidences of MS in the world, with an estimated 11,000 people in our country currently diagnosed with the condition. One of an increasing number of known autoimmune conditions we know that presently there is no cure like many neurological diseases, but it is a credit to the MS Society at a UK level that in the last 60 years over £150 million have been raised to research the condition with the final goal of finding a cure. It is interesting to note that MS is more prevalent in women than men for the ratio of three to one. I would not personally be taking part in the great women's 10k run in Glasgow in two weeks' time, but this women-only fundraising event shows the determination of women across Scotland to show their support for finding a cure for MS, and I wish the 10,000 participants the best of luck and very happy running. The MS Society in Scotland has branches across the country, and in the region that I represent, there is the well-used Stewart Resource Centre in Aberdeen. For people throughout the city and Aberdeenshire, this facility provides help and support for people and their families with MS through a wide range of activities from fundraising to social events. The cake break and open date at the centre last year was a good example of communities coming together on a social basis to raise awareness of the condition. It is important that, as many people as possible should be made aware that MS can and does affect many lives. For a personal perspective, like George Adam and Jenny Marra, I, too, have a close family member who faces the challenges of living with MS, although, fortunately, my relative's condition is only a fairly minor incapacity at the present time. Unfortunately, and I wouldn't like to be critical of NHS care, the person I'm referring to was diagnosed with MS nearly 10 years ago, and, as far as I'm aware, it hasn't been seen by an MS clinical nurse since diagnosis, which makes me slightly sceptical of the claim that an MS patient is reviewed every 12 months. What I'm unclear about is who triggers the contact with the MS nurse. Is it the patient or is it the GP? I'd be grateful that the minister could enlighten me so that I can follow this up. It's encouraging that, according to the most recent data from 2013, the number of people newly diagnosed with MS who have had contact with an MS specialist nurse has gone up by 11 per cent on the previous year, but that is still only 57 per cent of those newly diagnosed patients, which isn't yet good enough and appears to be variable across the country. The theme of this year's MS campaign focuses on people with MS and their right to continue in education and employment. The family member, whom I mentioned, was retired from full-time work by the time he was diagnosed, although he may have had some unrecognised warning symptoms many years before. However, it is worth reiterating that most people who are diagnosed fall within the 20 to 40 age bracket, the time when most people are either in further education or working. It's worrying that only a quarter of people with MS are actually in employment compared to three quarters of the UK population. Indeed, approximately 75 per cent of people with MS feel that their working lives and career have been harmed by their diagnosis. It's also saddening to know that MS sufferers can end up unemployed within the first 10 years after diagnosis. The obvious effect that this has on people with MS doesn't just lead to understandable depression but also to financial insecurity. By being unable to work through symptoms such as intense pain, extreme fatigue, mobility problems and, in the worst cases, factors such as vision loss and incontinence, MS can present a huge burden not only to the individual but also to his or her family. MS Society Scotland does a huge amount of work to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis, and this week of focus on the condition should stand out as a sign that it cannot and should not be ignored. My thanks to George Adam for securing the debate. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I, too, join with others in congratulating George Adam on securing the debate again this year. It's a cause to which he's shown a great dedication of the years and an issue in which he's provided considerable insights from personal experience, insights that, on occasions, may have gone beyond what his wife Stacey was comfortable to sanction. The theme of this year's campaign, My Life, My MS, allows us to reflect on a whole range of issues that influence the life of people living with MS, how they and their families and friends are impacted by a diagnosis and how they then receive on going care and support. This is very pertinent. As from all I've learned about MS, including in preparing for my own member's debate on this subject two years ago, it strikes me as it has others, that this is a very individual disease. As I observed back then, the causes are as yet unclear, and I will come back to that shortly. However, the symptoms are also hard to pin down. They can include intense pain, mobility and co-ordination problems, severe depression, fatigue, incontinence and loss of vision, as the net mill referred to. For some people, there are periods of relapse and remission for others. The pattern is one of progressive deterioration. That variability can make life more complicated for sufferers and those around them. People often assume that sufferers will be wheelchair-bound or very old, yet diagnosis invariably takes place between the ages of 20 and 40. Many of the symptoms are invisible and they can come and go. I suspect that that makes the task of supporting those with a diagnosis less than straightforward. Those who have been diagnosed quite naturally want to know what to expect next. As one of my constituents, Angela Montyth, who has been helping fellow sufferers for many years, both directly and through her work with the MS Society, explained to me that answering that question is not easy. The disease is never the same for everyone, and post-diagnosis is almost impossible to predict the future. In terms of the support that is available, again, as I pointed out in my debate in 2013, things are patchy. Clinical standards for neurological conditions, including MS, were published in 2009, but they are not always being met. There are certainly examples of excellent and innovative practice, but this is not being applied perhaps as widely as any of us would wish to see. I am pleased to say that NHS Orkney is meeting the MS standard for service provision, partnership working involving physiospeech therapists, doctors and occupational therapists, as well as local groups and charities representing people with MS and other neurological conditions, has made this all possible. In an island community, MS sufferers and their families face some unique additional problems. Although regular get-togethers are held, they can be hard to attend for people living on the smaller outer islands, and the sense of isolation can often exacerbate other problems that they may be facing. The costs of patients travelling to Aberdeen for neurological check-ups are high, though the increasing use of telehealth is helping in this regard. The local MS nurse in Orkney supports patients during such tele-consultations with the Aberdeen-based neurologist, saving money but critically reducing the physical and emotional strain of having to travel long distances. As if these challenges were not enough, Of course, Orkney and Shetland also have the highest incidence of MS, not just in Scotland but anywhere in the world. The reasons for this are unclear, so I very much welcome the research currently being undertaken to try and uncover some of the answers. There is the welcome recent announcement that Jenny Marra referred to of the £2 million for stem cell research. In addition, Dr Jim Wilson, himself anarchadian, continues his groundbreaking work at Edinburgh University. I was interested here recently about the research being done by PhD student Emily Weiss. Working alongside Dr Wilson, Emily is trying to establish how heritable MS is, what role genetics play in determining risk and what the environmental risks are, including exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight. Genetics, a good deal of work, has already been done in gathering data through the NIMS and Orchids projects. It will be fascinating to see what Emily and her colleagues are able to extract from this. Likewise, the Viking Health study in Shetland has pulled together a good-based data that will hopefully better inform our understanding of the impact that sunlight exposure on vitamin D deficiency and therefore risk of MS actually is. From conclusions, maybe some way off, ways of mitigating risks further away still, in the meantime, we need to get better at understanding and catering for the specific needs of MS sufferers and their families. I congratulate George Adam once again on keeping this issue at the top of our minds and our understanding. I thank all those in Orkney and across Scotland who help to support those with MS to ensure that, like Stacey, MS does not define them. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I add my thanks also to George Adam for this debate. The last debate that I mentioned, my boss and my mentor, NCR Dundee, Laurie Elder, who had this illness and whose strength and courage guide me still. The debate allows us to look once again—and that recurrence is very important—to look once again at the issues that affect people with MS and the impact that it has on them and their families. That, too, is important, because I know the impact—not all but—that it had on Laurie's family. It also allows us to ensure that we continually review the care and support that we give to people with MS and their care. That, too, is very important. MS affects around one in 600 people, more than 100,000 people in the UK and an estimated 10,000 people in Scotland. I assure the notion that it is often a disability, but it is not an illness. MS diagnosis is usually affected between the ages of 20 and 40, so it affects people relatively early in life with roughly three times more women than men having MS. The MS Society recently unveiled its strategy that runs from 2015 to 2019. It is very appropriate—the mission statement reads, I quote—to enable everyone affected by MS to live life to their full potential and secure care and support that they need until they ultimately find a cure and one will be found. In its strategy, the MS Society laid out seven key goals, so I might just address the first three. On effective treatments, the MS Society said that it aims to double its funding into research in the next five years. As MSPs and a Parliament, we have to, we must, we need to influence and pressurise pharmaceutical companies, for example, to improve access to treatments that already exist. Negotiations with the Scottish Medicines Consortium to make access to those medicines must be pursued to make them as available and as open as possible. To sum this accessibility with pricing, etc., is a black art, and it's time when we shawnt a light upon it. The MS Society rightly pushes for large-scale rolling clinical trials. We also require a small-scale trial on a vitamin D as a potential disease-modifying treatment, and internationalisation and cross-fertilisation of ideas and information is a keystone to build a bridge to find the ultimate effective treatment. The second goal was on responsive care and support. It's absolutely essential that access to treatments is person-centred and co-ordinated, so that it recognises people with MS as equal partners. In 2010, the Scottish Government unveiled the long-term conditions collaborative with the aim of improving pathways for those suffering with MS, encouraging integrated care and delivering care closer to home. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published its guide to management of MS in primary and secondary care. It makes recommendations supporting an integrated support approach, but also has a focus on access to local services, in particular to groups and carer support. Family love and care, of course, is the foundation of all that, and I know that Doris Elder and the Boys contributed greatly to Lorry, particularly his later life. Earlier this week, we discussed the future of work programmes in Scotland. In that debate, I argued for all work programmes to be devolved to Scotland that would allow the integrated approach that everyone agrees is essential. The MS Society and its submission to the Welfare Reform Committee in 2013 stated that around 60 per cent of work-capable assessment centres were inaccessible. 80 per cent felt that their health suffered by WCA assessments, and that 69 per cent of those questions were not offered any help to get them into work. We need to bring all work programmes to Scotland to ensure that, among others, MS sufferers in Scotland have the best accessibility to employment. Finally, in terms of preventing MS, I believe from what I have read and following the issue, we are much closer to understanding what causes MS, and each day, I believe, the resolution comes closer. We know that it is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, and we need to accelerate research into what causes MS, including time and resource, to run prevention trials. Let us make sure that we, all of us, in politics in particular, play our part in securing the MS mission statement, to enable everyone affected by MS to live life to their full potential and to secure the care and support that they need. Due to the number of members who wish to speak on the debate, I am minded to accept that motion under rule 8.14.3, to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. Can I invite George Adam to make such a motion? The question is, are members agreed that we extend the debate this evening? We are agreed. I now call Malcolm Tism to be followed by Lewis MacDonald. Presiding Officer, I congratulate George Adam for once again introducing a debate on this important subject and championing the cause following in your own footsteps. I also welcome the MS Society to the Parliament this week. It has been my privilege, and I am sure the privilege of many members, to talk to them and read their materials and learn from them. I think that it is a feature of neurological conditions that so many of them have great champions and indeed providers. I am myself, for example, a patron of the MS Therapy Centre in Leith, which provides highly valued support services and innovative therapies to people in Edinburgh and beyond. I pay tribute to the superb manager and the dedicated volunteers who work in that centre. I go back to the MS Society. In particular, we should welcome the award that we have already heard about from Jenny Marra of £2 million to the Edinburgh Centre for MS Research. For work on primary progressive MS, the particular focus of that centre is stem cells and the hope of building a clearer picture of how MS develops a better method for modelling the condition and finding effective treatment. We all welcome that announcement this week. My only complaint about the MS Society is that, for some reason, I did not receive a thorough briefing for the debate, which I see on my colleagues' desks beside me. However, I have read their strategy 2015 to 2019, and, in fact, they presented on that at the last but one meeting of the cross-party group on MS. Like Chick Brody, I will not refer to the seven priorities in their totality, but I merely mentioned two or three. I was particularly struck by the emphasis on responsive care and support that recognises people with MS as equal partners in their care. I think that that is a general principle that we have tried to develop in health over the past few years. It is particularly important for people with long-term conditions. Again, the voluntary sector is very much champions of that approach to care. The first priority that was mentioned was effective treatments. Again, that very much overlaps with the campaign that the MS Society had last year, the Treat Me Right campaign, which was the subject of the debate at this time last year. That was partly about better access to medicines, but also about access to a multidisciplinary team and access to a specialist. Since last year, we have had the welcome announcement from the Scottish Government of a Fund for Specialist Nurses, so I think that it would be appropriate to express the wish that some of that money should go to nurse specialists for MS, because we all know that when we talk to people with neurological and indeed other conditions that nurse specialists are very, very greatly valued, which, of course, why Gordon Eggman and his great campaigning has emphasised the importance of nurse specialists for NMD. Access to specialist in a regular review every 12 months was also part of the campaign last year. Of course, that is one of many neurological standards. It was a great advance when we had clinical standards for neurology, but when the neurological alliance did a report on that, admittedly, two or three years ago, it did highlight the postcode lottery of care when it came to the implementation of those standards. There is still work to be done in terms of that, but also in terms of social care, because support there is also variable. Effective integration is obviously going to be crucial for people with MS and other neurological conditions, and several issues, in fact, specific with two neurology were raised in the recent debate on health and social care integration. However, the final point that I would make is two final points. One is let's make sure that we effectively involve the voluntary sector in integration, but let's make sure that, while looking forward to guidance on localism, we must have a degree of central direction so that we get rid of the postcode lottery of care, whether in health or social care. Thank you. I now call Lewis Macdonald to be followed by John Finnie. Thank you very much. I too congratulate George Adam on bringing this motion for debate today. I have enjoyed working with him as deputy convener in the cross-party group on MS, which continues to bring important issues to the attention of the Parliament, as well as, occasionally, less weighty matters. Multiple sclerosis impacts on the everyday lives of people living with the condition to different degrees and in different ways. I have friends with MS who have maintained a high quality of life and mobility for years after diagnosis. Equally, I know others for whom their physical deterioration has been both rapid and painful. MS also varies from area to area. Scotland has indeed one of the highest rates of prevalence in the world, and Aberdeen and the Northeast have among the highest in Scotland. Out of 451 new cases in mainland health board areas in 2013, 64 were recorded in Grampian. Significantly more than Grampian's population share would suggest. The incidence in Orkney is even higher, and, as Liam McArthur said, patients from the Northern Isles also access specialised medical services in Aberdeen, either in person or by the dealings. There are currently some 15 whole-time equivalent MS nurses in Scotland for some 11,000 people with the condition of which three whole-time equivalent posts cover Grampian and the Northern Isles. Even a modest increase in those numbers would clearly go a long way. The MS trust is campaigning to increase the number of specialist MS nurses across the UK, and the MS society has called on the Scottish Government to allocate part of its funds announced in January for specialist nursing and care, to allocate part of that to increasing the number of specialist MS nurses who make such a difference to patients' lives. I hope that the minister will be able to respond positively to that call, which has been repeated this evening by Malcolm Chisholm. Of course, support for people with MS is not just down to the NHS. Local councils and patients' organisations also play a part. I heard earlier today from a constituent who was enthused by the excellent KeepFit class at the Stuart Resource Centre, which Donette Mill mentioned, one of many such activities and events that are organised by the Aberdeen branch of the MS society. It has very effective outreach, for example, MS awareness exhibition at the Aberdeen royal infirmary recently, and I'm living well with MS event in Bancary. KeepFit has been taken to a whole new level by sport and exercise students at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, who have organised bespoke exercise classes designed in collaboration with the local branch of the MS society, and the students not only design the courses but are also providing support to those people taking part. Sue Ryder Care has just launched the five hours programme in Aberdeen with support from the Big Lottery Fund. The five hours are relaxation, rebuilding, re-energising, reintegrating and regenerating, all of which are very relevant to people with MS. Along with relaxing activities, that programme offers some very practical advice. There is lots going on at a local level, but most important of all, as a number of members have mentioned, is the work being done to understand what causes MS and what treatments can make the biggest difference to patients' lives. The MS society's smart trials of different neurological drugs are part of that, and so are the risk-sharing schemes that have been undertaken by NICE at a UK level. When the minister responds to the debate, I'm sure he will address the issue of support for MS nurses to help existing patients. I would also ask him to tell us how the Government envisages Scotland playing our part in the quest for better treatments for MS in the future. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, add my congratulations to George for all his work on this. Actually, for framing what's a very practical motion, I very much appreciate the wordings in there. Dennis Robertson told us that it is about persons, and when you're saying my, my life, my MS, it is very much to concern with an individual, and as the motion goes on to say, explores the whole person. The campaign will look at all the issues that influence the lives of people with MS. Well, those are the same issues that influence all of us, but with the added challenge, and that's a phrase that we've heard in the debate already. Those are not just simply health, they are about housing and the difficulties, some signs with AIDS and adaptations, with transport, with increasing problems as people's mobility authors and with education. That was, I think, Chick Brody that mentioned about employment there, and there's certainly a long way to go with some education as regards the treatment of people with MS. I assisted a constituent for whom their employer thought it was entirely unreasonable to make a reasonable adjustment, and I have to tell you an extremely modest adjustment. So, yes, some way to go with that. Colleague Liam McArthur talks about isolation, which is another factor that can impact and in which his constituency is a very clear example. Had a look online this morning about MS, and of course, as with everything, there's a wide range of issues. A lot of it is about fundraising and the commendable activities that take place around the country and around the world. Also, a lot of coverage of the Edinburgh Centre, which I won't repeat, but I was delighted when I did look at the website to find that the management board is made up of independent MS research scientists and people affected by MS. I think that that is terribly important, that again, we keep it using the term that's been used previously, person-centred, that this isn't something that's done to people, that this is something where there's an active involvement with. I think that in last year's debate, I mentioned a young woman in the challenge of securing a drug. I'm delighted to say that that matter's resolved, and that isn't just to the individual's benefit, that's the benefit of the family, and particularly the wee boy they have. So, there is a clamour for a QR, and it's an understandable clamour, and there's a clamour for drugs to ameliorate the effects of it. Vitamin D is not just simply mentioned in relation to MS, it is mentioned in relation to other matters. I'm always impressed with the energy that I encounter with people associated with MS. In the last year, I visited Kirkwall, Oban, Lachilped, and I'm regularly at the Edinburgh Centre there, and the energy of people who assist and the energy of people who have the illness is very commendable. We know that this campaign is the latest in a series, and, again, it talks about caring and support. We have to ask ourselves who's going to do the caring and who's going to do the supporting. I say that there's a pivotal role for this establishment here to do that. Politics is about priorities, and if your priorities are to replace weapons of mass destruction ahead of putting that funding to a more constructive use for humanity, then these financial challenges aren't just going to be restricted to the welfare reform and austerity programme. The difficulties, as George Adam highlighted, are about this 20-metre walk. The hallmark for me of people who are involved in MS is astoicism. They're not going to give into that. As someone, I think, Chick Brodie, said, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure that, with proper funding for research, that tunnel will get shorter, and hopefully that sooner rather than later. I now call Neil Findlay. I also thank George Adam for submitting a motion for debate and for his chair of the cross-party group. It doesn't seem like a year since the last debate on this subject, but I'm sure that, for the 600 or so, people have newly diagnosed. Since this time last year, the last 12 months have felt more like a lifetime. That is how many more people will have had this life-changing diagnosis since we last debated. 600 people, 600 families whose lives will change forever. It's easy to over-dramatise the impact of a certain condition in order to make a political or an emotional point. MS must be one of the most frustrating and exasperating of conditions. It's the variability of sudden attacks after periods of being well, leading to periods away from work or ending a career altogether that leaves people floored through fatigue and mental as well as physical exhaustion. For those with progressive MS, the downward spiral and the lack of respite from it and the absence of effective drugs to help or cure is almost as bad as the illness itself. Therefore, I would welcome the additional £2 million that is going to the centre that has been mentioned by so many people. Like George Adam, my interest comes from my own family and the experience of sufferers in my close circle of friends, fit, able, sociable, working men and women, one a professional footballer, another one my brother, another one my auntie, all hit by this very debilitating illness and all left very much to their own devices to work their way through a system where information that should be easily available wasn't. Last year at the MS parliamentary reception, I heard Elizabeth Quigley very eloquently and powerfully speak about MS being shrouded in secrets, about patients always having to go and search for help and advice, always having to ask people where to get that advice instead of being offered it up front, of not being made aware of new drugs and treatments, but having to plead with health boards to get them, of being unaware of how councils and voluntary organisations can help until months or even years later through some obscure circuitous route that that information is passed on, and often that information passed on way too late. Elizabeth's speech that night was absolutely spot on and you could see rang a bell with people in the room. It certainly struck a chord with my family members. In an information filled age, often it appears that the information that you need is the hardest to come by. Patients need help, they need to know what services are available, they need to know that there are new developments, they need MS nurse if indeed they have one, and if they see them, to advise them of new developments, they need consultants to tell them what help they can get, not just ask them at their annual assessment if indeed they get one. The same question is last year, which we could probably paraphrase as how have you been, I'm okay, okay, see you next year. They need to know that places like Lookie House is available for respite and care and how to access funding to go there for that, treat that care. I asked five long summer suffering MS patients, I know, if they had heard of Lookie House. None of them had, none of them had, yet all of them could have been benefiting from the array of services it provides. And these people, these are people with good family support around them. I have no idea how people with little family or social support cope and find out these things. So, Presiding Officer, these are very important matters for people who are suffering. I also very briefly want to mention the cost of items to assist people with MS and other disabilities. Ramps for wheelchairs, 100 quid, a decent wheel chair, 1500 quid, an automated roof box to carry a chair, a few thousand pounds, a fit enough hand controls in a car, another few hundred quid, seats and adaptations. The list, the expensive list, goes on and on and on. All additional pressures and costs and people who often have, like my brother and two friends, have had to give up their work or have had to go and reduce to ours because of their condition. Finally, Presiding Officer, on a brighter note, my brother and an MS sufferer of 20 years gets married next month, so I wish him and his wife to be sure and well as they battle MS together. Thank you. I'm sure we all wish your brother and his bride to be very well indeed. Can I call on Jimmy Hepburn, Minister, to wind up the debate about seven minutes? Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I begin by joining everyone in thanking George Adam for raising that motion and bringing it to the chamber for debating for all the members who have taken part in the debate, as well as to thank them too. I also take the opportunity to congratulate MS Society on its work. Members have spoken various about much of the good work that takes place on the ground. I know from my own engagement with the Cymru Olden District MS Society in my area that the great work they undertake in supporting people locally in the community. I can also thank George Adam for all the work that he does in this apparent to raise interest and awareness about MS, as well as others have remarked upon. We all know how highly people with MS value the practical and emotional support that the MS Society offers. It's great that that support extends to families and carers. I'm very proud to say that the Scottish Government has a long and close working relationship with the MS Society. We share their view that everyone, with the neurological conditions such as MS, is able to live life to their full potential and secure the care and support that they need. That includes their families and carers. It is being told that you have a condition for which there may be no cure. It can be devastating when individuals respond to this in different ways. We must recognise that the change that matters most and can make the biggest differences to people's lives are not in the power of researchers or clinicians. It is important that a person living with a neurological condition is able to decide what support they need when it is to be delivered by whom. Personalised and integrated services for adults living with a neurological condition will be strengthened further by the implementation of the Social Care Self-Directed Support Act and the Public Bodies Joint Working Act, accompanied by the Right Advice and Information. The Self-Directed Support Act can play a crucial role in helping people living with a neurological condition to achieve better outcomes and better quality. It is important to improve outcomes for patients, service users, carers and their families. Health boards and local authorities should work together alongside the third sector, which Malcolm Chisholm referred to as being so crucial in that regard to effectively deliver quality, sustainable care services. We continue to work with our partners and local government to ensure that there is more consistency and fairness in the way that people are charged and we will consider very carefully what further action we can take to ensure the delivery of fairer care for the people of Scotland. Some members spoke about the importance of research. Lewis MacDonald asked what role can we play as a country. The chief scientist's office has given more than £644,000 for MS research projects in Scotland recent years. It also provides funding of £475,000 per year for the Scottish dementia and neurodegenerative disease research network. We also see elsewhere the unruling clinic at the University of Edinburgh. The role of the clinic is to improve patients' lives through research by translating laboratory discoveries into clinical trials and new therapies. As other members have referred to, we have seen the announcement in recent days that MS society is investing a further £2 million into the Edinburgh Centre for MS research. The National Institute for Health Research Technology assessment grant has been awarded to Dr Dori McClurgat, Glasgow Caledonian University, to undertake a £750,000 project that will study the effectiveness of abdominal massage for the neurogenic build dysfunction of people with multiple sclerosis. We will always be willing to see research projects come forth. I do hope that we, as a country, can play our partner-improving treatments for MS. One of those treatments might be New Medicines. George Adam spoke about access to medicines. I think that it is important to make clear that all treatments for MS that have been submitted by pharmaceutical companies to the Scottish Medicine Consortium have been recommended for use in NHS Scotland. There are two medicines for the treatment of MS that have been licensed but have not been recommended to Satvex and Thampradine, which was referred to by Mr Adam. That is because the companies have not put forward the submission to the Scottish Medicines Consortium, but the Government has met the pharmaceutical companies and we would recognise patients who should not have to argue for access to those drugs on an individual basis. We hope that the companies will put forward a good quality submission. That is a fair price to the Scottish Medicines Consortium in order for patients in Scotland to be able to benefit from those medicines. I will give way briefly to... Liam McArthur. Thank you very much. I am grateful to the minister for taking the intervention. He is right in relation to the availability of medicines. It seems to be one of the improvements that has been made over the last few years, but as the MS society we are making clear to me earlier on this afternoon, a gap appears to be in relation to the treatments for progressive MS. Is that something perhaps that he and his discussions with the SMC and others might be able to try and accelerate some progress over the next couple of years or so? I suppose that I will go back to my fundamental point. All treatments for MS that have been submitted by pharmaceutical companies to the SMC have been recommended for use, so we need the companies to come forward to make a bid to the SMC. I suppose that I am making the point that we would welcome that if the companies were to come forward. George Adam spoke about the impact that welfare reforms are having on those with a diagnosis of MS. It is vital, I believe, that the Scottish Government will look at them at the third sector work together to develop a joined-up expression of our collective efforts to mitigate, as far as we possibly can, the worst impacts of the welfare reforms that are being taken forward by the UK Government. We are working with the NHS, the cause of disability organisations in the third sector to understand the impact of welfare reform on disabled people and on. It serves to be put in place a range of measures to allow us to identify whether public health is being harmed by welfare reforms. That will allow us to take steps to continue mitigating the worst outcomes. As part of that, health boards have been given tools to allow them to identify those at greatest risk of their health being harmed and to take steps to help people to access support in their communities. I want to refer, because a number of members, Malcolm Chisholm and Lewis McDoll, have talked about the specialist nurse funding that was announced by the First Minister. Previously, the First Minister announced that motor neuron disease specialist nurses would be the first to be utilised that funding of £700,000 from the overall £2.5 million pot will go towards specialist nursing care in support of those with motor neuron disease. I know that those with other conditions such as MS and the organisations that campaign for them are interested to see where the Scottish Government will go with the remainder of the funds. The allocation of the remaining funds will be informed by a review of specialist nursing services being currently undertaken by the Government. I would say that it is important to recognise that there has been an increase in the number of MS nurse specialists and nurse specialists with neurology or neuroscience specialists in recent years to have time. Why have the Scottish Government withdrawn funding for the neurological alliance of Scotland? I thought that it might be about the area of my speech that I was making. I would observe that we fund a range of organisations and all the members of that alliance are also members of the health and social care alliance. We would recognise that they can come together to make collective efforts. We will always be very happy to engage with the individual organisations as well. We have a relationship with all of them already. Just to finish the point, do I have time? If it is very brief. Again, very briefly. Given the concerns of various organisations such as MND Scotland and Parkinson's UK about that, will he agree to meet those organisations to discuss the neurological alliance? I will always be very happy to meet organisations that seek to meet me. I make that commitment to Malcolm Cheson and other members of any organisation. Once they contact me, I will be happy to respond. Just to finish the point about the area that I was trying to touch upon in terms of the specialist nurse funding, the chief nursing officer will be writing to NHS boards in the next week or so about that particular fund. In conclusion, I want to assure you and other members that we are fully committed to working in partnership with the third sector on addressing any inequities of care and making the necessary positive and lasting healthcare changes for the benefit of all those people who are living with a new logical condition, including MS, across Scotland. Once more, I thank George Adam for bringing forward this debate this evening. I thank all members who have taken part in the debate and I now close this meeting.