Mr. Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con): Is the hon. Lady aware that the "Herceptin for Shropshire" campaign was launched in the Shropshire County primary care trust area today, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr. Paterson) mentioned earlier? The campaign is being led by a number of ladies in similar circumstances to those of the hon. Lady's friend, who have a particular reason to secure that support. It is important that they should continue to press the PCT to secure the funding, because, as the Secretary of State has said, she is prepared to allow it to take place.
Mrs. Hodgson: I have some ideas on funding, and I want to open up a debate on that whole issue. I shall come to that in a moment. We just have to keep pressing the individual PCTs and reminding them that they have the ability to take these decisions, regardless of the budgetary pressures that they are under. We are pumping in lots of money for cancer services, and they must spend it wisely. However, I am told that they often choose to spend money that they had allocated for cancer services on other equally pressing things. It is up to everyone involved in this debate to insist that that money is spent on cancer treatment.
