00:00 I want to add my best wishes to those of the house, to his majesty the King and to
00:06 the Royal Family as they face this particularly difficult time. I know only
00:11 too personally as a survivor of one of the eight least survivable cancers in
00:16 the world, esophageal cancer, what it is to face that diagnosis personally, to
00:22 have to share it with family and friends and then to stand up and to let people
00:28 know because I had a small insight into public life and to share my story
00:33 without knowing what the end of it was going to be with Mark Davenport and the
00:38 BBC and then subsequently with the Belfast Telegraph. That was four years
00:43 ago now. Esophageal cancer is one of the most least survivable cancers. It must be
00:51 caught early. It is vital that our Health Service is ready and willing and able
00:58 to support patients like myself and others who have those particular cancers.
01:03 I want to place specifically on record my thanks to the Cancer Centre at the
01:09 Belfast City Hospital, to the nurse specialists who looked after me, to my
01:13 oncologist and to my surgeon, all of whom did an amazing job for me and for the
01:20 many patients like me who face the diagnosis of esophageal cancer. So Mr.
01:27 Speaker, I have immense admiration for His Majesty the King and the way in
01:33 which he has publicly come forward at this very early stage to let people be
01:39 aware of what is happening to him and the difficulties that his family will
01:44 face.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
