SENEDD members have called for Owain’s law, in memory of a young father, to ensure a gold-standard approach to preserving human tissue for cancer patients.

Labour Caerphilly member Hefin David led a debate on a cross-party motion on Wednesday calling for a law named after his constituent Owain James, who died from cancer last year.

Mr James was only 34 years old when he was diagnosed with a 14cm, malignant, grade-four brain tumour in his right frontal lobe.

Dr David said the family turned to private treatment and found a personalised vaccine that used a patient’s tumour tissue to educate the immune system to recognise cancerous cells.

He told the Senedd: “The problem here, however, was that Owain needed fresh frozen tumour tissue to develop a sufficient dose of the vaccine.

“Owain had had 7cm of tissue surgically removed but, unfortunately, only 1cm of this was fresh frozen and could be used.”

Dr David said fresh frozen tissue is regarded as the gold-standard approach and can be used for vaccines, therapies, research and genome sequencing.

The non-binding motion was agreed unanimously, but Owain’s law is unlikely to proceed without Welsh ministers’ full support.