HMT Empire Windrush docked in Essex in 1948, carrying passengers from the Caribbean to the UK.

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After a frantic start to the week, with two emergency debates, the Commons has been altogether quieter today.

Transport questions kicked off the day with questions on HS2 and train ticketing, as well as aviation and Brexit.

The Leader of the House outlined upcoming business for the Commons next week.

Then there have been two backbench debates on surgical mesh and cancer treatments. Baroness Jowell, pictured, sat in the Commons for the debate on cancer treatment.

The Commons sits again on Monday at 2:30pm, starting with Defence questions and then the second reading of the Rating and Council Tax Bill.

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The House of Lords has adjourned for the day.

Peers return at 2:30pm on Monday for oral questions, followed by the second day of report stage on the EU Withdrawal Bill.

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Health Minister Steve Brine says that today's debate is something which he "will remember for a long time".

He says that as the "current minister for cancer", he was "captivated" by Baroness Jowell's speech, made to the House of Lords in January.

He says that people affected by cancer "are never just" a cancer, in the case of Baroness Jowell she is still a mum and campaigner.

"We shouldn't underestimate what a difficult challenge brain cancer is," he says he is "impatient and determined" to "fighting the big C".

He believes "that this challenge is one we can overcome".

He says that funding for new research into brain tumours is now open to bids from Monday of this week.

"Due to the rarity of these many types of brain tumours it is vital we use this patient data more effectively," he says. The UK must start sharing patient data on brain tumours much more effectively, "for the common good, not for the almighty shilling".

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Addressing the airstrikes on Syrian government sites by the US, UK and France last weekend Defence Minister Earl Howe says consulting Parliament beforehand would have "weakened our operational security" by potentially revealing targets for a strike.

He adds that the attacks were a "limited, targeted, effective strike" and were "not about intervening in a civil war".

A cross-party group of MPs aims to increase pressure for a Brexit customs union deal.

What does the government defeat in the House of Lords on amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill mean - and what more is to come?

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Sharon Hodgson, Shadow Health Minister, says she lost her mother-in-law 21 years ago to breast cancer, which inspired her to join the All-Party Parliamentary Group on breast cancer.

"Tessa's optimism and and ambition has affected us all over the years," she says, "today is not about politics, but patients," she adds, quoting Baroness Jowell.

"Cancer is not about politics," she says "in the future, we can put our politics aside...to truly fight cancer together". Brain tumours are the most common killers of adults under the age of 40 in the UK, and the most common killer of children, she says.

She welcomes the announcement of £45m of funding for brain cancer research which the government announced in February.

But the research community on brain tumors is "fragmented" and there are "no clear hubs for excellence".

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Defence Minister Earl Howe is winding up today's debate. He says the debate has emphasised some of the "big themes" of the current international situation, both the "depth and breadth of the threats that we face is different" as well as the "range of threats from state powers, not just terrorists and insurgents".

He goes on to address Syria, where he says the government believes a "negotiated settlement" is the "only appropriate outcome".

He also chides Russia for engaging in what he calls "greyzone conflict" using methods that "strive to stay below our range of response" but "can be very serious", including cyber attacks.

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Labour's Tulip Siddiq says "it was Tessa who was fundamental in bringing the Olympics to London", saying that it was Baroness Jowell who said that the Olympics would tell London to "celebrate our diversity".

"A cancer friends initiative could also bring profound benefits" for cancer patients, which she says would help some sufferers in trying to find stem cell matches, for example.

Only 60% of sufferers receive a "best match" in stem cell operations, and in the BAME community, this is much lower, she says.

She says Baroness Jowell is a "model of" "resilience", "optimism" and a "politician".

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Conservative Rachel Maclean says that this debate highlights that "we really do have more in common," she says that cancer's "dark logic spares nobody".

She says that cancer has been around since 4600BC, but lived in silence until 440BC, when a slave "recalled removing a tumour from his mistress's breast".

She says that her local NHS Trust is "failing to meet" their cancer statistics, and says that the health secretary first said that her Trust was one of the worst performing when she was elected.

"Breast cancer patients are now benefiting from a drastically reduced waiting time," thanks to simpler tests, she says. Tests are now done in house, reducing the time in waiting for results, she adds.

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Labour's Lord Glasman spent five days in Syria during the parliamentary recess, as a guest of the authorities who run the Kurdish segment of northern Syria, alongside the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

He says Western policy in Syria has laboured under a "delusion" that there is some sort of "moderate Sunni Arab force" the UK could ally with against Assad.

But he says the Kurds exist as a "third force" in Syria "that isn't Assad and isn't ISIS", but they have been "betrayed". Kurdish forces have benefitted from western military support during the Syrian civil war.

He says he wants to ask the minister "whose side are we on in this? Why are we not being much more resolute in supporting our allies who have fought with consitently? Why have we stood back?"

A month ago forces backed by Turkey, a member of NATO, took the city of Afrin from mainly Kurdish forces defending it. Turkey claims it was fighting "terrorists".

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Former Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, who himself recently went through a procedure to remove a tumour in his lung, says "fundamentally, a profound message of hope" shone through from Baroness Jowell's words.

He says that many speeches on cancer in Parliament can become "sterile" and just focus on statistics and funding. He says that Baroness Jowell's speech, focusing on "a life well led" broke through many typical speeches on the matter.

Brain tumours are the biggest preventable cause of blindness in children, he states. There needs to be a better "join up" between hospitals and clinical trials.

He says he "warmly" welcomes the announcement from the government of £45m of additional funding for brain tumour research from the government in conjunction with Cancer Research UK.

He adds that he recently gave permission for his own tumour sample to be used for further research, in the hope that it will help others.

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Labour's Sarah Jones opens this debate on cancer treatments in the UK.

She says that her father died of cancer last June, three days after she was elected to the Commons. No-one in the chamber is not "touched by cancer," she adds.

She pays tribute to her former boss, Baroness Jowell, who is currently undergoing treatment for an aggressive and difficult to treat form of brain cancer. Only 2% of funding for research goes to study brain tumours, she says.

Baroness Jowell has "thrown herself into her campaign" to help people who have cancer live longer, she says. As a woman "who walks through walls" in her campaigns, "you could almost feel sorry for cancer," she jokes.

She says the UK needs to radically transform both clinical trials and data sharing because "no vital drugs have been approved for 50 years" in brain tumour treatments and uptake of clinical trials in brain tumour patients are low.

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Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, says on Syria the British government has made "a real error" because we "hate and loathe" Assad.

He says he'd "love a regime change to something nice" but "look at the opposition...my goodness me, some of them are worse than Daesh" he says, referring to another term for the ISIS group.

He says UK policy in Syria is "a real worry and we need to think that through".

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Jackie Doyle-Price, Health Minister, thanks everyone who has contributed their personal stories in this debate.

"It is very important that the NHS does do its best to actually make life better for those women," she adds, and asks MPs to contact her directly with individual cases where the NHS may not be responding to cases well.

She says that NHS guidance is "clear" that mesh "should not be offered as a first intervention".

The guidance will be published later this year, and completed next year, she says.

"The acceptable level of risk will differ from patient to patient," she says, in how doctors consider recommending this course of treatment.

The government has introduced a review to look into cases and to hear from individuals, she says.

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Shadow Health Minister, Sharon Hodgson, says the stories shared by constituents with their MPs, which have been retold in the Commons this afternoon, are "distressing".

She says that her 74-year old mother, who has been "back and forth to the doctors" in the past four years, has also had a procedure done to her. "It hadn't even occured to her" that there was a connection between the procedure she'd gone through and the symptoms she was now receiving.

She says her mother is now on the "long road" to some reversal surgery if it is possible. "She trusted the medical profession to do her no harm," she says "but my mam is lucky, she recognises that". She says that her symptoms have not been as bad as other people's experiences.

She says that Labour are urging NICE to update the guidelines immediately before they are next due to be reviewed in 2019-20.

If this was a tumble dryer which was causing harm to people in 10-15% of people, it would be recalled, she adds.

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Conservative Baroness Helic says action in Syria "must go well beyond surgical strikes" and there needs to be a "comprehensive strategy" for ending the war.

She says the world must fight the use of chemical weapons, and that the "ultimate deterrent would be the sight of Syrian leaders in the dock" at a future war crimes tribunal.

She says she wants a guarantee from the minister that the UK "will not support a peace process that includes amnesty for war crimes in Syria", listing chemical weapons, sieges, starvation, barrel bombs, attacks on hospitals and systematic use of rape and sexual violence as crimes carried out during the seven year long Syrian Civil War.

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Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, best known for his work as a military historian, says the operation last weekend in Syria was the first test of "Chilcot compliant" policy making.

The Chilcot report into the 2003 Iraq War suggested a "checklist" to aid military decision making.

He says that the strikes on Syria should have been the first UK operation to be carried out using the checklist, which encourages decision makers to ask why action is proposed, what the UK knows about the situation and what the legal status of the proposed action is, external. He says he's sought answers from ministers about the use of the checklist but has not had any.

"Perhaps surprisingly", he adds, the checklist is "silent" on the question of Parliamentary involvement.

It may only be symbolic, but those forcing a customs union vote in the Commons hope it will add to pressure for a policy change.