'It is a shock, there’s no doubt about it': TD discloses throat cancer diagnosis

Dun Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said he has been diagnosed with throat cancer and requires months of treatment.

The People Before Profit leader, 58, said he noticed a swelling around his neck during the general election campaign at the end of last year.

He said he needs to take three or four months off work as he undergoes radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, which will begin next week.

“I just want to stress I plan to be back as soon as possible but I need to throw everything at this,” he said on RTÉ Radio’s Today With Claire Byrne.

“I noticed at the end of October and November, I was actually in the middle of the election campaign, I was shaving and I noticed a swelling in my neck.” 

He waited until the general election was over and then went to the doctor before Christmas.

After having his tonsils removed and a biopsy was carried out, he was diagnosed with throat cancer caused by human papillomavirus.

“It is a shock, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

Mr Boyd Barrett said he was told it was not genetic or caused by smoking, which means his chances of responding well to the treatment are better.

He added: “The doctors have said it is very curable, so I’ve a good chance. It’s been caught relatively early, because it was in my tonsil, it has gone to my lymph nodes but no further.

“So I have to get radiotherapy and chemotherapy and they say the chances of that working are about eight to nine out of 10, which is good, but obviously you could be unlucky.” 

He said that how the treatment might affect his voice “is a concern”, but added “people who use their voice have had these things before and get through it”.

He said that the medical team have been “fantastic” and retired People Before Profit TD Brid Smith has agreed to help at Mr Boyd Barrett’s constituency office in Dun Laoghaire in the months ahead.

He said it would be hard to step back from the job, and suggested there should be a substitute system for TDs.

He added: “I feel like apologising to people out there that I won’t be around for a few months, and that’s why I want to let them know there’s a reason for it – I’m not off skiving.

“Friends and my work colleagues have been saying ‘You need to step back’. And the doctor, certainly the chemotherapist doctor, was fairly adamant I needed not to work during this and throw everything at it.” 

He said: “It’s going to be hard to step back, I’ll be honest, and looking at the stuff that’s happening, there’s very dramatic events happening in the world, I’m sorry I won’t be around for some of them.

“This economic war Trump has launched, the horrors that are ongoing in Gaza, the housing crisis, which huge issue in the country, in my area.

“I regret, in a way, that I won’t be around to campaign on those things, but I will be all going well, I’ll be back at it.”