Lord Blunkett (Lab)

I apologise to the House for my premature and ill-timed intervention earlier. After 10 years in the House, I need to go back and sharply revise my understanding of procedure. I am grateful to the House for the opportunity of being able to intervene. I am emotionally moved today by two things: first, by two of my most long-standing and closest friends, a married couple, both of whom were diagnosed with different cancers in the autumn and are now supporting and caring for themselves, and, secondly, by the timely intervention from the noble Lord, Lord O’Shaughnessy, and reminder of the very powerful final speech of my long-standing friend, Baroness Tessa Jowell, in this House. I thank the noble Lord for his part in carrying that legacy forward and the important concentration on research. I only wanted to do two things. The first was to congratulate my noble friend Lady Elliott on taking this forward and to hope that, in the next three months, we can get Royal Assent. The second was to add that rare cancers sometimes morph into being much less rare. The more we can do to examine those so-called rare cancers, the more likely we are to be able to intervene early and prevent developments which would otherwise lead to death. If we can do that, early understanding of their development and the ability to save people in the future will be much more likely. I am very grateful for the mention of oesophageal cancer this morning. In the past oesophageal cancer was a rare cancer. People were sometimes wrongly diagnosed with stomach cancer, but it was relatively rare. Sadly, it is no longer. I recall my very good friend, Lord Bob Kerslake, who was from and remained in Sheffield. He died from oesophageal cancer not so long ago. Today, we have the opportunity to turn the spotlight on those rare cancers that affect a very large number of people and, in some cases, will affect greater numbers in years to come as environmental, societal and dietary changes have their impact. I thank your Lordships for the opportunity to intervene.