A tumour was removed from the thymus of Richard Cannings last month.

Cannings, 71 -- the former MP for Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay -- shared the news publicly earlier this week. He decided to go public after hearing a false rumour that he underwent open-heart surgery.

For the surgery Cannings needed his sternum opened in much the same was as required for heart surgery.

Cannings initially went to the hospital with chest pain in June. Sharp pains on his left side had him thinking there may be something wrong with his lung. He was told it may just be a case of ammonia.

But two months later, he began experiencing the same symptoms again, so he returned to the hospital and underwent MRI scans.

That’s when a tumour was discovered in the middle of his chest. The mass was 15 cent

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