Scottish Parliament debates coeliac disease

23 MSPs attended the debate on a motion tabled by Margo MacDonald MSP. This is the first time that the Scottish Parliament has debated coeliac disease and the awareness of it was given a significant boost . Nearly a dozen MSPs spoke in the debate and were all supportive raising the issue of a lack of early diagnosis and the costs of gluten-free foods. 
Click here to read a full transcript of the debate. 

Briefing session and speakers
A dozen MSPs also attended a briefing session that morning, organised by our PR agency The Newton Consultancy, at which the Scottish Health Minister Andy Kerr MSP spoke. Other speakers at the briefing included Margo MacDonald MSP and Gordon Banks MP who spoke about his own experience and of setting up the All Party Group at Westminster. Yvonne Murray also spoke of her difficulties in trying to get her daughter diagnosed.

Exhibition at the Parliament
Coeliac UK also had an exhibition all day outside the debating chamber of  the Parliament manned by Coeliac UK along with some of our local organisers in Scotland, staff from The Newton Consultancy and Gordon Banks MP who stayed for the day. Among the MSPs who visited the exhibition stand were the First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP, the Health and Deputy Health Ministers, Andy Kerr MSP and Lewis Macdonald MSP and the Presiding Officer of the Parliament George Reid MSP; as well as the political correspondent and news correspondent of BBC Scotland. 

Media involvement
Central FM radio interviewed Margo MacDonald MSP, Gordon Banks MP and Sarah Sleet Coeliac UK Chief Executive; while the Edinburgh Evening News interviewed Yvonne Murray and local organiser Wilma Fraser.