CYSTIC FIBROSIS AWARENESS WEEK 20TH - 28TH MARCH 2004

Early day motion 852, tabled 16 March 2004 by Jim Dowd (Labour). Signed by 83 members.

That this House supports Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Week and its aims of raising the profile of the condition which is the UK's most common, life-threatening, inherited disease; congratulates the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the only national charity solely concerned with the welfare of people with CF, for reaching its 40th anniversary this year; notes that there are over 7,500 sufferers in the UK, of which 70 per cent. are under 20, and each week five babies are born with CF and three young lives are lost to CF; praises the CF trust which is aiming to raise ú15 million over the next five years in order to fund a gene therapy programme which will enable an effective therapy for CF to be developed, dramatically increasing sufferers' life expectancy and should eventually lead to a cure being found; and calls on the Government to ensure that the condition receives due attention.

Signatures by party: Labour 49, Liberal Democrat 16, Conservative 5, Labour/Co-operative 4, DUP 3, Plaid Cymru 3, UUP 2, Scottish National Party 1.