It was the perfect speech. It made a powerful impression on its audience today
First Minister Carwyn said that in 1957 a young man on national service in Munchen Gladbach was called home to serve his final three months in Hereford. No one explained why. He was posted to work in Army Records.
This was a chance to check his own record - probably by breaking the rules. He was astonished to read in his file a letter from his family doctor saying that he should be brought home because his mother was suffering from cancer and had only three months to live. No one had told the soldier. I know this story, Carwyn said, because that soldier was my father. My grandmother died a few months later at the age of 45.
Carwyn said that in the past cancer was feared to the extent that it was kept secret as though it was something shameful. At the opening of St. David's Hospice Care's new Hospice at Malpas Newport, the First Minister praised the positive practical modern attitude to the disease, to fight it as far as possible and to ensure the best possible quality for the final days of life. Hospices play a major role in bringing comfort to those in the final days of life and their families.
He praised the great work of Emma Saysell the Director of Nursing who has persistently campaigned for this splendid new facility.
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