MP leaves hospital ‘to be with family’
ROCHDALE MP Tony Lloyd has announced that he has made the decision to leave hospital after his cancer developed into an ‘aggressive and untreatable leukaemia’.
The member of parliament, who is also a former Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, has asked for privacy as he spends ‘ the time I have left with my family’.
In a statement, he said his office will remain open to support his constituents.
It comes after Mr Lloyd said he was undergoing a course of chemotherapy for blood cancer earlier in the year.
Mr Lloyd, formerly an MP for Stretford, said he had been receiving treatment ‘for some time’.
“I have been receiving treatment for some time for a form of blood cancer which has been controlled by chemotherapy,” it
reads. “Unfortunately this has now transformed into an aggressive and untreatable form of leukaemia and I will be leaving hospital today to spend the time I have left with my family.
“I ask for privacy for both myself and my family at this time.
“My office will remain open to continue to support my constituents.”
In 2021 Mr Lloyd announced he was in remission from blood cancer and described how the kindness of strangers - as well as the support of his loved ones and skill of the medical professions has been invaluable in his fight for life.
He said at the time: “I’m genuinely so grateful to so many people who have been there for me.
“It’s the obvious people - those in my family, my loved-ones, those who thought of me, those who quite literally prayed for me during the worst times I was ill.
“But actually it was all manner of people.
“I had a number of blood transfusions [as part of his cancer treatment] and I will never know how those people were. But what amazing people - they almost certainly saved my life.”
However, in January 2023 he said he would be undergoing further treatment for the cancer, saying it was his ‘ambition to get back to normal’ but he would ‘concentrate on getting better’.
‘I ask for privacy for both myself and my family at this time’