Mayor diagnosed with cancer

PNT senior writer

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Portales Mayor Sharon King said she’s fighting fatigue but was feeling much better Wednesday after finding out she was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, during a recent hospital stay.

link Sharon King

Diagnosed

with myeloma

King, 59, said she plans to be back on her feet soon, and has no plans to relinquish her mayoral duties. But she said her schedule will have to be based around her treatment, which will include chemotherapy.

“I hope once I get treatment, I’ll have the strength to do things, but for right now I’ll have to take things day by day,” King said.

King said she wasn’t feeling well for the last four weeks and was due for gallbladder surgery last week when doctors said they would not be able to operate on her because of abnormalities in her blood work.

She went to a Lubbock hospital for further tests, which included blood labs, X-rays and a bone biopsy and the results ultimately led to her diagnosis of myeloma.

“The really good news is that it is not in my bones, it’s just in the marrow,” King said. “(Her doctor) said it’s very treatable.”

King said she’ll begin chemotherapy and will later need a stem cell transplant.

King has survived cancer before. She said she was diagnosed with melanoma 15 years ago and had her thumb removed. During treatment for her melanoma, she said she was told there was a 25 percent chance that she could get myeloma.

“After 15 years you don’t think much about it,” King said.

She added that cancer runs in her family and at least 19 members, including herself, have been diagnosed with some form of cancer.

Portales City Manager Doug Redmond said he met with King on Tuesday at her home because she wasn’t feeling well enough to be in the office.

“Right now she’s just a little tired but she’s still performing her duties,” Redmond said.

“Everything’s going good and running smoothly. We are of course keeping her in our prayers and thoughts.”