SPD boss: “Shortly before the cliff”: Klingbeil talks about cancer

SPD boss Lars Klingbeil for the first time has spoken publicly about how a cancer survived eleven years ago changed his life. “I had tongue cancer from smoking and discovered it myself,” reveals the 47-year-old in “Zeit” podcast “. At the time, he was going to a hospital for treatment and was “very lucky” that everything went well in the end. The situation still shapes him today. “You can look at life differently when you are just before the cliff.”

Futers in smoking, but then 40 cigarettes a day

Klingbeil tells in the more than six -hour conversation for the podcast that he only started smoking at around 25 and that he was in the meantime with 40 cigarettes a day. A year after deciding to quit smoking, he discovered a carcinoma – a malignant tissue change – under his tongue and decided to have it examined.

Before the operation, the doctor told him: “It may be that you are totally fine afterwards, but that you can no longer speak.” A few days later he came into the room and said: “Nothing has penetrated the tissue. You have a second birthday today.” This “very crucial moment” has put a lot into perspective for him.

“That gave me a lot of strength for everything else”

The fact that he survived this situation at the time is still “just an explanation in many points why I am as I am,” says the SPD leader. “It gave me a lot of strength for everything else. And when people look at me today and say:” Why does he rest? Why isn’t it so excited? Why doesn’t he get out of the version? “, Then it has a lot to do with me that I say: there is a little extension that I have developed myself.”

“Very great inner peace”

When asked how his life as a politician had changed, Klingbeil said that he had become more relaxed due to the experience. Before that, he wanted to regulate things “a lot of convulsive, compulsive”. “That gives me a very great inner calm that I have completed this moment in my life and passed it successfully.”

At that time he initially questioned his whole life. After a phase of thinking, he also found clarity for the path he wanted to go.

Lots of sport, a lot of discipline

The fact that he does a lot of sport today and is very disciplined has everything to do with the experience of the time, says Klingbeil. After the operation, he was repeatedly examined for five years until it was clear that the cancer was defeated. “That is something, where you then deal with such a topic and also pay attention to it: What can you do so that it doesn’t come back at some point?” There were also the moments when he once again felt like a cigarette. But he had resisted the temptation “thank God”.

Tongue cancer extremely rare

Tongue cancer is a form of so -called oral cavity carcinoma. According to the specialized University Hospital Düsseldorf, this type of tumor can occur everywhere in the oral cavity – the tongue is affected comparatively frequently. Overall, according to the German Cancer Research Center, tongue cancer is an extremely rare type of cancer. Smoking applies to the main risk factor for the disease.