Hansard

I add my congratulations and thanks to Marie McNair for securing the debate. I must confess that I knew nothing about bile duct cancer. I have learned a lot just from listening to other members. The reason that I am speaking in the debate is that one of my constituents emailed me and asked whether I would briefly tell her story. It is my honour and privilege to do so. She wrote:

“I hadn’t heard of it until it changed the course of my family’s life in 2023. My beloved Mum, Valerie, was diagnosed with it in April 2023, after feeling a pain in her side. I couldn’t begin to put into words how shocked and devastated we were when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer after minimal symptoms and still being at work up until very close to the diagnosis. The worst thing was being told that there was absolutely nothing they could do, despite symptoms only showing a few days before. From here, things escalated at a terrifying pace. Mum passed away just 33 days after her diagnosis aged just 63. I went from everything being fine, to planning a funeral for my Mum at the age of 25 only 33 days later.”

I am sure that everyone would want to pass on their best regards and sympathy to my constituent.

Sadly, my constituent’s story is not unique. It is a story that other people have told me since hearing about the debate. As other members have said, cholangiocarcinoma is very difficult to diagnose and, even when it is diagnosed, it is very difficult to treat. I think that we all agree that it is a cancer on which specialised research needs to be undertaken. We need to find ways of enabling people to receive an earlier diagnosis, and we need to find an effective treatment for dealing with a horrible disease.

As other members have said, bile duct cancer is a cancer that affects more people who are perhaps older, but it is becoming more common in younger people. I fully understand that there are budgetary pressures on every Government and that, in almost every members’ business debate, members will ask the Government to find more money to fund the issue that has been raised, but I genuinely ask, on behalf of my constituent and all those who have gone through the same thing, for money to be found to put into specialised research, so that we can give hope to people who will face the condition in the future.