No pre-poll for mayoral candidate

GOLD COAST mayoral candidate Virginia Freebody has revealed she won’t be attending any pre-poll events in the lead-up to the election.

The Robina businesswoman has confirmed husband Roland Cramer, diagnosed with multiple myeloma leukaemia in 2015, was recently released from hospital after a fight with pneumonia.

She said the entire family, including her 14-year-old daughter, had now been tested for coronavirus.

“I have to minimise my exposure to COVID-19 as well as any other bug basically,” she said. “That’s come from doctors at the Gold Coast University Hospital, that I wasn’t to be out and about.”

People with cancer are considered more at risk of becoming seriously ill if they contract the virus, and many are already in self-isolation.

Mr Cramer is undergoing his second round of chemotherapy. He was released from hospital on March 11.

He confirmed his age also put him at “high risk” from COVID-19.

“He’s had three bouts of cancer,” Ms Freebody said.

“He had lung cancer in 1997 that he was cleared of, then he had multiple myeloma come back in 2016, and it came back again in 2018.

“And I am really battling to do a lot of things I should be doing for my campaign but I have to care for him.”

Ms Freebody isn’t the only election candidate left unable to visit pre-poll booths, with Division 11’s Chantal Clarke now in self-isolation.

Ms Clarke confirmed to the Bulletin several members of her family suffer health conditions which make them high-risk.