ON MONDAY I was delighted to help cut the ribbon and open Swindon's newest major superstore – Morrisons in Eldene (pictured above). This supermarket represents an investment of £15 million, which is a huge vote of confidence in our town by one of the country's leading retail groups.

It’s also a very welcome boost to our local economy, creating jobs for more than 220 people from the area. I understand 114 of those were previously unemployed. The new Morrisons store is also a Craft Skills Academy, meaning many of its staff are trained in traditional skills including butchery, fishmongery, bakery and flower arranging.

Swindon Town’s Fraser Digby and Nathan Thompson, the Mayor of Swindon, and Cllr David Renard, Leader of the Council, joined me in opening the new 25,000 sqft supermarket. I was pleased that the Council were represented, since the authority has done a lot in recent years to encourage this sort of investment away from the town centre. In particular, many of our ‘village centres’, which are now frankly starting to show their age, are being regenerated or have plans to do so.

With the new development on the old college site in town now very much taking shape, we are seeing the welcome signs of economic recovery and investment across the whole Borough.

On to another matter now, and this week we have had two worrying news stories about cancer. Yesterday, health experts warned of what they called a ‘tidal wave of cancer’ in future years, caused by the growing population and the fact that many people are living longer. And on Monday we heard that breast cancer is a particular problem in women over 70, who are less likely to be checked and less aware of the signs.

It means survival rates in that age group are below what they should be.

This chimes in with some work I've been doing in Parliament. A couple of weeks ago I joined the organisation Breast Cancer Care at an event calling for patients’ voices to be heard when decisions are made about the availability of new medicines on the NHS in England.

Patients affected by breast cancer were on hand to share their experiences. They set out their expectations for a new system for assessing medicines, known as the ‘value assessment’, to be led by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. I agreed to write to NICE in order to ensure that the patient voice is listened to.

I was delighted to be able to meet breast cancer patients and hear first-hand what it is they value when it comes to treatment. I will work hard to ensure that the new system reflects their needs and priorities.