PADDY Ashdown has revealed he is being treated for bladder cancer and the outcome is "unpredictable".
The 77-year-old peer, who led the Liberal Democrats between 1988 and 1999, said he had been recently diagnosed with the disease.
The ex-Royal Marines officer told Somerset Live: "I have known for about three weeks that I am suffering from a cancer of the bladder.
"I'm being effectively and wonderfully looked after by everyone at Yeovil Hospital, in whom I have complete confidence.
"We must see about the outcome, which as always with things like this, is unpredictable."
Lord Ashdown added: "I've fought a lot of battles in my life. This time I am lucky enough to have the magnificent help of our local hospital, and my friends and family, and that gives me great confidence."
Sir Vince Cable, the current party leader, tweeted: "My best wishes for a speedy recovery to Paddy Ashdown, one of the great British political figures of the past 30 years and the man who built the Lib Dems into a Parliamentary force. Love to Paddy, Jane and their family."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel