For months, Hussein Samatar dragged himself to meetings of the Minneapolis school board, so wiped out that he couldn't speak at times.
He kept his exhaustion and the reason for it hidden from even his fellow board members until Wednesday, when he announced that he's fighting chronic lymphocytic leukemia and that the resulting chemotherapy has taken a toll on him.
Samatar, 45, who in 2010 became the first Somali immigrant to be elected to public office in Minnesota, announced the news on Facebook, his hand forced by the need for a bone-marrow transplant he expects to undergo by mid-May.
"I never even considered missing a meeting," he said in an interview.
That streak is likely to be broken with an expected two months of recovery from the transplant. The operation also is keeping him from trying to further his groundbreaking political career by running for mayor. He was primed to announce his candidacy until doctors advised him that it's not practical after the transplant, which is expected to improve his chances for survival.
He said doctors have estimated his chances of surviving his cancer of the blood at 70-75 percent. That's consistent with the national five-year survival rate of 78.8 percent reported by the National Cancer Institute. Samatar said he was told that his age and good health improve his chances of beating it. He was diagnosed in early December at a much younger age than the median of 72; the probability of being diagnosed with the disease is one in 202 for those born today.
"Who knows? It's really up in the air," he said of his chances.
He's been through three of four rounds of treatment. "It has been very hard. There were times I felt so lousy I couldn't even get up," he said. "There are days that I feel great and days that I feel terrible."
