Current Petitions

Petition PE687 is on the donation of bone marrow and blood stem cells. Before proceeding with discussion of the petition, I must inform members—I think that they know, but I say this in case they do not—that, sadly, Millie Forbes, the patient whose search for a bone marrow donor was the catalyst for the petition, died at the end of July. A donor for her was located but, unfortunately, her leukaemia returned. I am sure that we all wish to pass on the committee's condolences to Millie's family when we respond to the petitioner.The petitioner called on Parliament to urge the Executive to run a campaign to encourage the donation of bone marrow and blood stem cells through a bone marrow register, and to recognise and support organisations that recruit bone marrow donors.At its meeting on 28 April 2004, the committee considered a response from the Minister for Health and Community Care and agreed to invite the petitioner's view. The petitioner highlights in her response the need to publicise widely the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Anthony Nolan Trust. The committee has also received a response from the Anthony Nolan Trust that says that the number of donors that are recruited from Scotland—at 2.5 per cent of the United Kingdom total—is woefully inadequate, that a campaign should be run to encourage bone marrow donation and that a long-term strategy to support patients who need transplants should be developed.I would welcome members' views on the responses.

I agree with those comments. I see Geva Blackett in the public gallery—she has waited a long time for what will be brief consideration of the petition, but we are treating it seriously.I was struck by the figure that 2.5 per cent of volunteers on the register come from Scotland, whereas I recall that the population of Scotland is about 8.5 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom. The percentage of people on the register is well short of that figure. Any action to push it up at least to the UK average would be beneficial.

We must write to the minister and ask for a response. The petition has highlighted inadequacies in the system and we need to find out what the Executive plans to do about that. We run campaigns on a host of issues, and the issue that is raised in the petition seems to be one that requires a lot more attention. A failure to obtain the required number of donors is apparent, so we need to know from the minister why there is no on-going campaign. We must impress upon him why a campaign is needed; there is no harm in letting the minister know that we support the aims of the petition.

Do members agree to write to the minister with those comments?Members indicated agreement.