9 Jun 2013

Queensland ex-premier diagnosed with cancer

11:41 am on 9 June 2013

Former Queensland premier Anna Bligh has been diagnosed with cancer.

Ms Bligh, who resigned from Parliament in March last year, will begin treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the next couple of weeks.

She said a tumour was removed from a lymph node on her neck last week, and further tests will be taken.

State Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk sent her best wishes to her former colleague.

"On behalf of the House I would like to wish her all the very best," she said during debate on budget bills in the state parliament.

Ms Bligh has asked for privacy during her treatment.

The ABC reports she was premier of Queensland from 2007 until a state election in March last year.

She resigned from Parliament after leading the party to its worst electoral defeat, in which the ALP lost all but seven of its seats.