Chuck Strahl MP

From Chad Sketon of the Vacouver Sun, via Neale News, more sad news about Conservative MP Chuck Strahl.

CHILLIWACK - Conservative MP Chuck Strahl says he plans to be back in Ottawa for the opening of Parliament next week, despite recently being told by his doctors that a life-threatening form of cancer discovered in the lining of one lung is also present in the second.

"I'm feeling good and I'm back at work and I hope to be at work for a long, long time," Strahl, who represents Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, said Sunday. "It's kind of business as usual for me."

In late August, Strahl, 48, announced that he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to the inhalation of asbestos
fibres. Strahl believes he may have inhaled asbestos while working as a
logger in his early 20s.

Doctors discovered the cancer in Strahl's other lung after investigating it with a scope two weeks ago. The discovery of the cancer in his second lung does not mean the cancer has spread, said Strahl, only that doctors have now found it. The average survival time for mesothelioma is about a year, but some people have lived with it for five years or more.

Lung cancer is a particularly nasty business and Mr. Strahl is a very able member of parliament with much still to contribute to the public good. I pray he gets well.

I admire his courage.