*** Syria first lady diagnosed with leukaemia | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Syria first lady diagnosed with leukaemia

AFP | Beirut, Lebanon

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s British-born wife Asma, who recovered from breast cancer in 2019, has been diagnosed with leukaemia, the president’s office said yesterday.

“First Lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia,” an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells involved in battling infection, it said in a statement.

She will undergo a “specialised treatment protocol” that requires social distancing to avoid infection, the statement said, adding that she will “temporarily withdraw from all direct engagements as part of her treatment plan”.

In 2019, Syria’s first lady had said she was “totally” free of breast cancer after battling the disease for a year.

Born in Britain in 1975, the former investment banker styled herself as a progressive rights advocate and the modern side of the Assad dynasty before the eruption of the country’s brutal civil war in 2011.