{"id":238584,"date":"2025-07-04T22:55:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T22:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238584\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T22:55:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T22:55:24","slug":"pembrokeshire-patients-removed-from-nhs-waiting-lists-without-warning-the-pembrokeshire-herald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238584\/","title":{"rendered":"Pembrokeshire patients removed from NHS waiting lists without warning \u2013 The Pembrokeshire Herald"},"content":{"rendered":"

SENEDD Members called for Owain\u2019s law, in memory of a young father, to ensure a gold-standard approach to preserving human tissue for other cancer patients in future.<\/p>\n

Hefin David led a debate on a cross-party\u00a0motion<\/a>\u00a0on July 2 calling for a law named after his Caerphilly constituent Owain James, who sadly died last year.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOwain was only 34 years old when he was diagnosed with a 14cm, malignant, grade-four brain tumour in his right frontal lobe. His neurosurgeon said it was one of the biggest tumours she\u2019d ever come across in her professional career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an absolutely devastating blow to Owain, his wife Ellie, who is in the public gallery today, and his daughter Amelia, who at the time was only 18 months old. Until then, Owain had always been a fit and healthy young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr David said the family turned to private treatment and found a personalised vaccine that used a patient\u2019s tumour tissue to educate the immune system to recognise cancerous cells.<\/p>\n

He told the Senedd: \u201cThe problem here, however, was that Owain needed fresh frozen tumour tissue to develop a sufficient dose of the vaccine. Owain had had 7cm of tissue surgically removed but, unfortunately, only 1cm of this was\u00a0fresh\u00a0frozen and could be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Caerphilly Senedd Member explained Owain only had three doses of vaccine when it should have been more like 30 doses, but he initially made a remarkable recovery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, metastasis caused his tumour to recur elsewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cThis time, the tumour was too aggressive and Owain sadly passed away in June 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Caerphilly'sCaerphilly\u2019s Labour MS Hefin David<\/p>\n

\u201cEllie, 35 years of age, now lives with the regret that they were only able to develop and obtain enough doses for those three vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad there been more, we feel that Owain would still be alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr David said fresh frozen tissue is regarded as the gold-standard approach and can be used for vaccines, therapies, research and genome sequencing.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cThis kind of use, though, can only be done when the tumour is\u00a0fresh\u00a0frozen, which it wasn\u2019t in Owain\u2019s case. Owain\u2019s law seeks to address this. It seeks to make this the default process for storing surgically removed tissue in Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Wales East MS Peredur Owen Griffiths<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru\u2019s Peredur Owen Griffiths, who represents South Wales East, said: \u201cMy mother also died from a brain tumour, so it\u2019s an issue that is deeply personal for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrain tumours remain the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, yet they receive just one per cent of national cancer research funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies like mine and Owain\u2019s are let down not only by research but also by how precious tumour tissue is managed. Owain\u2019s law will enshrine a vital principle that patients and families must be fully informed and able to consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OwainOwain James playing football for Church Village FC<\/p>\n

Mr Owen Griffiths added: \u201cThis is more than a technical protocol. This is a matter of dignity, respect and hope for families facing devastating diagnoses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Conservatives\u2019 Altaf Hussain, a former surgeon, supported Owain\u2019s law but emphasised the importance of accommodations for religious preferences.<\/p>\n

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru\u2019s shadow health secretary, expressed concerns about long waits before receiving a diagnosis and a lack of diagnostic machines such as scanners.<\/p>\n

Mr ap Gwynfor told the Senedd: \u201cEven after receiving a diagnosis, we have a lack of specialist treatment centres \u2013 with far too many of our patients having to travel very long distances at times of weakness to receive their treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backing Owain\u2019s law, he said: \u201cThis proposal does reflect two core principles at the heart of our NHS. The first is that the NHS belongs to the public\u2026. Second, it\u2019s the voice of the patient, their concerns, their views, that should be at the heart of every decision made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Miles, for the Welsh Government, stressed the need to proceed with care and warned a legal requirement to freeze all brain tumour tissue risks unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

Wales\u2019 health secretary said: \u201cClinical teams already use their expert judgment to balance diagnostic needs with the potential for research and novel therapies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverriding that clinical discretion through legislation could compromise timely diagnosis or create conflict where tissue volume is limited, which is why the government does not believe that the case is made for legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth secretary Jeremy Miles<\/p>\n

While the non-binding motion was agreed unanimously, Owain\u2019s law is unlikely to proceed without Welsh ministers\u2019 full support. But Dr David argued the UK and other countries will eventually introduce such a law as the availability of tissue becomes key to treatment.<\/p>\n

Closing the debate, he said: \u201cLet\u2019s remember Owain for everything he\u2019s done today. Even in his passing, he\u2019s contributed to the debate on keeping patients alive for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SENEDD Members called for Owain\u2019s law, in memory of a young father, to ensure a gold-standard approach to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-238584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114797433824516993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}