SIR Menzies Campbell has revealed for the first time how he defied the advice of his doctors - concerned about his recovery from cancer - to become leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The 72-year-old MP for North East Fife also described his wife Elspeth's misgivings about how, after being diagnosed in 2002 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, he threw himself into his work as the LibDem spokesman on foreign affairs in the run-up to the Iraq war, which his party, under Charles Kennedy's leadership, opposed.
In his first interview since announcing he would stand down at the next General Election after nearly 30 years in the House of Commons, Sir Menzies recalled having to make his biggest career move in 2006; whether to stand for the leadership given his health.
He admits: "The medical advice was not to do it. I've never told anyone that. I never actually told Elspeth; not till later." So why did he do it? "It was for the love of the Libs and I felt I had a duty to do it because I knew internally there was a job to be done."
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