Credit: Metro file photo
Former Boston mayor Tom Menino has been diagnosed with advanced cancer and is undergoing treatment.
The cancer of an unknown origin, according to doctors, has spread to Menino’s liver and lymph nodes, according to the Globe. It was discovered last month when Menino was being examined for weakness in his legs. He has been receiving intravenous chemotherapy since early this month, according to the Globe.
Word of the diagnosis has led to an outpouring of messages of support for the city’s longest serving mayor. His successor said Saturday night that the people of Boston are behind Menino.
“I’ve never known Tom Menino to back down from a fight, and I don’t expect him to start now,” Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “Mayor Menino has always been here for the people of Boston, and we’re behind him today, 100 percent. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, Angela, their family and many friends.”
The 71-year-old former mayor was elected to five terms and decided not to seek re-election last year. He now serves as a director of a new institute on cities at Boston University.
“My attitude really is, we’ll get through it,” Menino told the Globe. “We got through the [illnesses in 2012], we’ll get through this. I have great doctors and supportive friends.”
Throughout the years, Menino has had to battle health issues and was hospitalized for weeks in 2012 after becoming ill while on a vacation in Italy with his wife Angela. During those weeks he was diagnosed with a blood clot, a compression fracture in his vertebrae and Type 2 diabetes. Last year he suffered from a fractured fibula and underwent an elective procedure for an enlarged prostate.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
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