Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to speak, and I thank Rhona Brankin for securing the debate. Given her experience of breast cancer, there is no more inspirational speaker on the issue in the Parliament.

Each year, about 4,000 women in Scotland are diagnosed with breast cancer. Throughout the UK, a diagnosis is made about every 11 minutes. Behind those figures and the other figures that we will hear about, we know that there are real women and families. There probably is not a family in the country that has not been affected by breast cancer. There certainly is not a workplace that has not been affected—I echo Rhona Brankin's comments about her former colleague, Margaret Ewing.

Screening, increased awareness and improved treatments are helping more people than ever to beat the disease. Advances in medical research continue to give hope that developments in understanding, prevention and cures will see that every person who is diagnosed makes a full recovery. However, as we have heard, we are not there yet. More than 1,000 women die from breast cancer every year in Scotland.

I pay tribute to the people who work in the health service and deal with breast cancer all the time. However, I echo Mary Scanlon's comments on the waiting times, which remain too long for women and their families to live with the worry of potential breast cancer.

I echo the comments of other members about the importance of the voluntary sector. Breast cancer organisations and charities in Scotland and throughout the UK do much to tackle the disease, raising the necessary funds for research, raising awareness and working with women who are affected by breast cancer and with their families. We owe them a great deal.

I also thank the many members who took part in the Scottish Breast Cancer Campaign's recent "wear it pink" photo call, which I sponsored. It was good to see so many colleagues there, supporting the campaign and looking particularly fetching in pink—I am not sure how many of them picked up the feather boa or how many played it safe with some of the other pink articles. It is important that we do all that we can to raise the profile of the illness.

We must also recognise our health care professionals, who provide treatment and support for people who are affected with breast cancer, and those who work in research labs. Over the summer recess, I too visited the Breakthrough Breast Cancer research unit, which is based at the Edinburgh breast unit at the Western general hospital in my constituency. It is a busy place. Researchers at the unit are currently working on the main challenges in breast cancer therapy and the causes of drug resistance. Its location in Edinburgh is a reflection of Scotland's excellent reputation in the field of scientific research, and it is a unique unit in Scotland, bringing together research scientists and clinicians. Although I can honestly say that, without a degree in chemistry, physics or the biological sciences, I was perplexed at times by some of the science involved, I was at all times absolutely inspired by the people who work in the unit.

I am also well aware of the excellent work that is done locally in my constituency, and I pay tribute to all the staff in the breast unit at the Western general hospital as well as the staff and volunteers at the Maggie's centre, which has been mentioned. Cancer is not just a physical illness, and the support that has been given by the Maggie's centre over the years has been crucial to many women and their families.

Despite better mortality figures, the incidence of breast cancer continues to increase year on year. Increases in the number of individuals who are diagnosed are always concerning, but those increases must be set against a background of better diagnostic techniques and understanding. Early screening programmes for women who have a history of breast cancer in their family afford the opportunity to catch the disease at the earliest possible moment. Catching the disease early is critical, in which context I echo the comments that have been made about our more deprived communities. It is important that the Government pursues the issue of there being a lower number of presentations and at a later stage in those communities, meaning that the women's mortality rate is higher.

It is particularly worrying that messages about the long-term impacts of lifestyle choices—the risks related to smoking, being overweight, not getting enough exercise and drinking too much—seem still not to be getting through. The figures that we have heard, relating to the number of women who do not know the signs of breast cancer, continue to be worrying. That is an issue that we require the Scottish Government to take on.