By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Office of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday announced that the First Lady, Asma, who in 2019 recovered from breast cancer has been diagnosed with leukemia.
“First Lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia,” a statement from the President’s office said.
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”.
Medical definition says leukaemia is cancer of blood-forming tissues, including bone marrow.
Many types exist such as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Heritage Times (HT) recalls that in 2019, the 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.
Asma often accompanies her husband during his rare official visits abroad, with footage of the presidential couple attending various state-sponsored functions regularly shared in official media.
The First Lady was even hailed as “A Rose in the Desert” in a now infamous cover story in US magazine Vogue before plaudits turned to condemnation over her support for her husband’s crushing of pro-democracy protests.
She founded the Syria Trust for Development charity, headquartered in Damascus, which is one of the rare such organisations allowed to work in government-held areas.
The First Lady, whose father is a cardiologist and whose mother is a diplomat, has two sons and a daughter with President Assad.
