Mesothelioma

Strahl, 50, cracked up the room by joking he couldn't even pronounce the cancer, which attacks the membrane around the lungs, when first diagnosed in 2005.

But as specialists looked on intently, the MP for the B.C.

riding of Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon offered a more philosophical message.

"My unfortunate experience in the cancer-fighting industry is that what patients are also looking for from you ...

is some hope," he said.

Strahl said it was comforting to know specialists were working to beat the cancer, which has been found in only a few hundred Canadians.

"(Patients) don't need you to cry at their bedside," Strahl said, speaking to an audience that included Deb, his wife of 32 years.

"They don't need you to hold their hands and walk through things moment by moment.

But what they do need is some sense of hope.

They need a sense that somebody cares about this enough to research this." Strahl noted several times that he would leave the scientific details to experts.

"While you're going through the molecular levels, and you're going through the chemotherapy treatments, and talking about surgical procedures, and you're going through all that, know that through all that, patients, even though they don't understand it all, take great hope in what you're doing," he said.

Strahl, also the sen...

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