26-05-2025
How Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc's life was saved by a 20-year-old German college student
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As the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, intergovernmental affairs and Prime Minister Mark Carney's 'One Canadian Economy' portfolio, Dominic LeBlanc will face many obstacles in the days and weeks ahead.
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But the veteran Liberal minister is no stranger to a challenge, having overcome a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma more than five years ago thanks to a stem cell donation from Germany.
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'Two years ago, Jonathan, the brave young man who saved my life, welcomed Jolene (Richard) and me to his family's home town in Germany, Bad Hersefeld,' he posted along with two photos of himself and his wife with the now 26-year-old and his family members.
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'I will cherish this moment and remember his kindness, and that of his family, forever.'
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In April 2019, while overseeing intergovernmental affairs, northern affairs and internal trade under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, a 51-year-old LeBlanc, feeling particularly unwell, was informed by Moncton doctors he had a 'lethal form' of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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His only chance at survival: 'very aggressive' chemotherapies and a stem cell donation via an allogeneic transplant — obtaining healthy stem cells from a donor who is not identical to the recipient.
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In an interview with DKMS, the German-based international blood science organization that ultimately paired him with Kehl, LeBlanc said it took doctors a few weeks to figure out the 'right recipe of chemotherapy' to get his cancer into remission before referring him to Montreal's Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, a facility renowned for its expertise in hematology and stem cell transplants.
