Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague Mr. Abernethy, Member for Great Slave, I, too, wish to speak to the issue of stem cell challenge clinics here in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, over the lunch hour, I actually went down with a group of friends to meet this challenge head on. Several of us wanted to ensure that we participated, because many of us believe that this is an important program that does save lives. Mr. Speaker, sadly, as we know very well, more people die waiting for a donor than receive them and we certainly wish that wasn’t the case.

Mr. Speaker, the process really takes about 10 minutes. It is a painless process. When I was down there with a bunch of my friends, you could see a lot of enthusiastic people knowing that their small contribution is going a long way to help other people. Mr. Speaker, an opportunity like this presents hope for many families who are out there hoping for a donor or a match. Mr. Speaker, it is equally comparable to the Live Donor Program which we need here in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, sadly, more people are waiting for a donor of some type but they don’t make it through that fight while they sit and wait.

Mr. Speaker, I can speak from personal experience of a recent sad case where someone that we call our Little Spike didn’t meet that challenge because a donor was not available. Mr. Speaker, as hard as we prayed, it just didn’t happen. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage everyone to dig deep down inside to see if they could make themselves available in this case to provide themselves for the Stem Cell Challenge or even consider filling out a donor card because their life could go on and save someone else’s.

Mr. Speaker, I would encourage everyone in this House, like Mr. Abernethy as well as anyone else out there who is listening, to take this opportunity to meet this challenge head on. It is an important value and I sincerely hope that many people do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.