Throat cancer fight for TD Richard

People Before Profit's Boyd Barrett to 'step back for a while' to undergo treatment

- LOUISE BURNE

PEOPLE Before Profit's Richard Boyd Barrett has announced he will have to step back from politics for several months due to a cancer diagnosis.

Speaking on RTE's Today with Claire Byrne, the Dun Laoghaire TD, 58, confirmed he had been diagnosed with throat cancer and has to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

However, he vowed yesterday on being back "as soon as possible" but said his doctors have insisted he cannot work during treatment as it can be "pretty rough".

Mr Boyd Barrett said: "I have to enter into a fairly intense period of cancer treatment over the next... It's going to certainly take a couple of months.

"Probably, all in all, we could be talking three or four months. It means I won't be around. They've said I need to kind of step back and throw everything at recovering.