Olivia Chow explains why Layton kept second cancer diagnosis private
Posted Oct 13, 2011 03:49:53 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MP Olivia Chow brought Jack Layton’s message of hope to a national meeting of the Prostate Cancer Canada Network Thursday afternoon.
She spoke of the late NDP leader’s public fight with the disease, and afterward answered a question from the audience about why the second cancer that took Layton’s life was never publically named.
“The reason why we don’t talk, why Jack chose not to describe the kind of cancer he had was that he didn’t want people to lose hope if they had that kind cancer,” said Chow. “Because it could be really scary, because he pretty sick.”
Chow focused on the survivability of prostate cancer, and encouraged advocates to push provincial governments to fund PSA blood testing as is done here in Nova Scotia.
