Blood Ties

Diagnosed with highly aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, federal minister Dominic Leblanc knew that only a perfect bone-marrow match could save him

- Harold Gagné

THE YOUNG MAN being greeted by a staffer from the Office of the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities is neither a politician nor a foreign delegate. Jonathan Kehl, 23, is a student from Bad Hersfeld, a town in Germany. Travelling with his friend Dennis Bolender, he'd never set foot in Canada before he deplaned in Ottawa on September 25, 2022. He was whisked to a hotel where Minister Dominic Leblanc was waiting. Emotions were high as the two men hugged.

Though they'd never met in person, they felt close: Jonathan Kehl's blood had been coursing through Dominic Leblanc's veins for three years.

IN 2000, LEBLANC, the son of former Governor General Roméo Leblanc, graduated from law school and began what would be a long political career when he was elected the Liberal MP in the New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour. He has since been re-elected seven times, led various government departments and served as the president of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

Brimming with energy, he'd never shied away from a heavy workload. But on Saturday, April 20, 2019, Leblanc, 55, felt so under the weather-exhausted and feverish-that he consulted a physician at Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton.

He was convinced he'd caught a flu bug, but a biopsy of the lymph nodes in his armpit said otherwise: He had a rare and very aggressive form of nonHodgkin's lymphoma. And it had started to attack his liver. In a Hail Mary attempt to control its progress, he underwent strong chemotherapy.

"We weren't sure he'd make it," says his hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Nicholas Finn. Adds Leblanc: "I found out later that if the treatment hadn't worked, I would have lived only a few more weeks."