Jared Kushner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer while serving in the West Wing, he has revealed in an upcoming memoir.
The book from former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, titled Breaking History: A White House Memoir, is set to be published next month.
An excerpt from the memoir about the sickness was provided to The New York Times.
“On the morning that I travelled to Texas to attend the opening of a Louis Vuitton factory, White House physician Sean Conley pulled me into the medical cabin on Air Force One,” he wrote in his book.
“‘Your test results came back from Walter Reed,’ he said. ‘It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule surgery right away’.”
Mr Kushner wrote that he had asked the doctor to wait. “Please don’t tell anyone — especially my wife or my father-in-law,” he said he told Dr Conley.
He wrote that the cancer was detected “early” but required surgery to remove a “substantial part of my thyroid”. Mr Kushner said he was warned there could be lasting damage to his voice.
A doctor at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital “concluded that I needed surgery to remove an unusual growth in my thyroid, and we scheduled the operation for the Friday before Thanksgiving,” he wrote.
“That way, I would miss the least amount of time in the office. My absence might even go unnoticed. That’s how I wanted it.”
“This was a personal problem and not for public consumption,” Mr Kushner said. He made sure only a small circle knew of the diagnoses.
“With the exception of Ivanka [Trump], Avi, Cassidy [his aides] and [Mick] Mulvaney [ex-White House chief of staff], I didn’t tell anyone at the White House — including the president.”
In the book, Mr Kushner describes “concentrating on work and trying not to think about the upcoming surgery or the unwanted growth in my body”.
“When I did think about it, I reminded myself that it was in the hands of God and the doctors and that whatever happened was out of my control. At moments, I caught myself wondering whether I would need extensive treatment,” he wrote.
