'I need to throw everything at this' - Richard Boyd Barrett reveals cancer diagnosis

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett is to step back from front-line politics for the foreseeable future after he was diagnosed with throat cancer.

The Dún Laoghaire TD has announced he received his diagnosis a number of weeks ago and will begin radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment next week.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Boyd Barrett said he will not be able to work while undergoing treatment and that he didn't just want to just disappear. 

"I have to enter into a fairly intense period of cancer treatment, it's going to certainly take a couple of months probably. All in all, we could be talking three or four months," he said.

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"I wanted to explain it because if I just disappeared, people, the constituents who elected me, would be wondering where I'm gone, so I wanted to do them the service of telling them. The people who voted for People Before Profit deserve to know if I'm not around and I just want to stress, I plan to be back as soon as possible," he added.

Mr Boyd Barrett explained that he first knew something was not right when he first noticed swelling in his neck while shaving during the General Election campaign late last year.

He attended a GP before Christmas and had follow-up tests and examinations earlier this year.

"They suspected that it was cancer - they had to do an operation, a biopsy, I ended up having to get my tonsils taken out and they found that I had throat cancer that was prompted by the HPV virus," he explained.

"The doctors have said that it is very curable - so I have a good chance. It's been caught relatively early because it was in my tonsils, it's gone to my lymph nodes but no further, so I have to get radio and chemotherapy, and they say the chances of that working are about eight or nine out of ten, which is good," he said.

The PBP TD said it was a “shock” to receive the diagnosis, but that he needs "to throw everything at this" to ensure he makes a full recovery.

“A lot of people get through it, I think the majority of people get through it. So, hopefully, I will too. The various people I've been dealing with have been fantastic,” he said adding: "I plan to be back as soon as possible."