Cancer won't stall election fight: Jones

Newfoundland and Labrador's Opposition leader says her battle with breast cancer won't stop her drive to take the Liberals into the fall general election.

Yvonne Jones, who stepped aside in August to begin treatment, told CBC News she even hopes to stand against Premier Kathy Dunderdale within weeks at the house of assembly, even though she is poised to begin five weeks of radiation therapy.

"I'm hoping to be back full time as we move into the legislative session in the spring. I don't see an issue with it at all," she said in an interview.

'It's been a very difficult process. I don't want to sugar-coat it at all.' —Yvonne Jones

"I always say that if my body could keep up with my mind right now, I wouldn't have a problem. I'm way out there in terms of what I want to be doing."

Jones returned to public view this week to help campaign for Liberal candidate Mark Watton in the Humber West byelection.

For most of the last six months, however, she has focused on health, including six punishing rounds of chemotherapy.

"It's been a very difficult process. I don't want to sugar-coat it at all," said Jones, who last fall called for an earlier threshold for breast cancer testing.

Jones, though, said her mind is now focused on the road ahead.

"It really has changed me in terms of how I look at life in general," she said. "Every day, I get up [and] I'm just so enthusiastic. I'm so energized and I don't think that will ever change again."