Current Petitions

PE1204 is from Jessie Colson, on behalf of the Richard Colson Severe Aplastic Anemia Fund, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to recognise and promote the life-saving impacts that bone marrow testing and donation can have on people with life-threatening illness and to provide adequate funding to the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to support bone marrow services and encourage more donors.The constituency member is here to speak to the petition. I invite Michael McMahon to speak and then we will decide what to do with the petition.

Thank you, convener. I have been asked by the petitioners to come today because their son is particularly unwell at the moment. They wanted me to highlight a couple of issues. The primary aim of the petition has been to try to get greater support from the Government for the promotion and delivery of bone marrow services. The other aspect was concern that too much of the current service and promotion depends on charitable donations and the support of one particular charity, the Anthony Nolan Trust.The petitioners asked me to use the following example to show why limited support is a difficulty. Because of the current financial circumstances in the country, financial support to the Anthony Nolan Trust has been reduced. As part of the awareness-raising campaign in which the Colson family is involved, they were given access to a car. That car had their son's name and the charity that they were promoting emblazoned on it, but the car has had to be taken off the road because there is no financial support to keep it going. That is exactly why the petition was lodged—the Colsons should not be left in that situation because of the vagaries of the economy, and important issues such as bone marrow services and transplantation and donation should not be left to chance in that way.The family has asked me to emphasise just how important it is that support for the service comes from more than just the charitable sector. They have asked whether the committee will consider continuing to inquire into what services can be provided on a statutory basis, if necessary, to ensure that people such as the Colsons, who are affected by such issues and who campaign around them, are not solely dependent on charity.

Thank you, Michael. Are there any observations from committee members on how we should progress the petition?

There seems to be agreement from committee members to that course of action. We will respond formally to the petitioners, but given that they have asked Michael McMahon to make representations, I ask him to tell them that we will keep the petition going and follow through on the issues raised in it.