I had the pleasure this morning of attending the National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast for the first time. I was accompanied by Rev Mark Davison of Upminster Baptist Church.

On Friday morning the team and I visited The Learning Centre (TLC), Harold Hill, to meet Mick and Ann-Marie Spence, the dynamic family team behind the company. 

Some of the trickiest problems we come across relate to getting hold of expensive experimental or relatively new treatments for constituents with rare diseases or illnesses where drug effectiveness has not yet been fully proven.

Here's my latest column for the Romford Recorder:

Back in March, it was announced that NHS Property had sold the former St George’s Hospital site in Hornchurch to developer, Bellway, for more than £40 million.

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting Reverend Vida Foday, who has pastoral responsibility for the Harold Wood Methodist Church as well as churches in Gidea Park and South Ockendon. 

Havering has had the fastest growing number of children of any London borough over the past few years, and we also have the highest proportion of elderly residents in the capital. Healthcare is therefore high up the list of issues that constituents contact me about.

Today the team and I visited Havering Talking Newspaper, a remarkable Harold Wood charity that for decades has delivered weekly audio rundowns of important borough news to blind or partially sighted residents.

A number of constituents have written to me about accessing the Orkambi drug because they or a loved one have cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine.

Autism is an issue that is raised with me time and again by local parents, whether that is in relation to speech and language therapy, the need for better early years support or problems in finding work for young adults.