After a recent diagnosis, my doctors have prescribed a course of chemotherapy for me. This is mainly delivered as a day patient to hospital and not very intense. This began a little before Christmas and will continue over the next couple of months. However, both the condition I have and the underlying treatment mean that my immune system is compromised during this time and a little beyond. In other words I am exposed to a higher risk of catching any infection.

As a result, doctors are telling me to socially isolate and avoid meetings. I shall not be attending Parliament during this treatment period nor meeting people in my Rochdale constituency or elsewhere, but I shall hold advice surgeries as usual though by way of zoom or telephone, and constituents who want to use this facility are welcome to do so. I shall continue to work to hold Ministers to account through the written questions I table, the letters I write as well as engaging with other agencies on behalf of my constituents. 

It’s obviously my ambition to get back to normal both for me as an individual and as a Member of Parliament as soon as possible but in the meantime, I shall concentrate on getting better.

– Tony Lloyd MP

—Ends—