People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett is stepping back from politics for a time as he receives treatment for throat cancer.
He was speaking a short time ago on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne.
Mr Boyd Barrett said that he had noticed a lump on his neck during the general election campaign in October and had it investigated before Christmas.
He said “I wanted to take the opportunity to say I recently got a cancer diagnosis, and I found out a few weeks ago, and I have to enter into a fairly intense period of cancer treatment over the next … well, it’s going to certainly take a couple of months probably. All in all, we could be talking three or four months,” he said.
He said that he would undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy, adding that the form of cancer is “very curable… I’ve a good chance.”
“I wanted to explain it because if I just disappeared, people, the constituents who elected me, would be wondering where I’m gone, so I wanted to do them the service of telling them,” he said.
“The people who voted for People Before Profit deserve to know if I’m not around, and I just want to stress, I plan to be back as soon as possible.”
Mr Boyd Barrett said that he had been told that eight or nine of every ten patients with this type of cancer recover.
However, he said that he expected the treatment to be “fairly rough”.
“Eating and drinking can get pretty rough,” he said.
“I’d be lying if I said I was wasn’t worried because there’s no guarantees. But I’m heartened by the confidence of the doctors,” he said.
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