Oak Harbor councilman announces cancer diagnosis

Oak Harbor City Councilman Jim Campbell stunned colleagues and members of the public alike this week with the announcement that he’s been diagnosed with cancer.

Reading from a prepared statement at the council’s regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting, Campbell said he got the bad news following a physical exam this past November. He decided to make the news public in keeping with his belief that “this city council must be totally open with the citizens of Oak Harbor.”

“In summary, let me just say I have prostate cancer,” Campbell said. “I have started treatment and am very optimistic that recovery will happen.”

Campbell said his odds appear good as CT and bone scans have shown that the cancer has not spread beyond the prostate. Accordingly, doctors have informed him that he has a 75 percent chance of recovery given his type of cancer.

Campbell said he has absolutely no plans to step down from his seat on the city council and that he will continue “utilizing my coffee hours at Angelos and my walkabouts around the city to get citizen input.”

Following the meeting, he also made it clear that he is still strongly considering a run for Island County Commissioner in 2012 when the seat currently held by Angie Homola comes up for election.

“This won’t change a thing,” Campbell said.

Campbell is in the middle of his second four-year term on the city council. The position he occupies will also be up for re-election in 2012.

Contact Whidbey News Times Staff reporter Justin Burnett at jburnett@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5054.

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