The meeting was set to announce a vast action plan to better support agents of the Rouen-Normandy metropolis and the city of Rouen suffering from cancer, this November 13, 2024. Between Pink October and Movember, two awareness campaigns for female and male cancers, the date did not seem chosen by chance.
Sporting an appropriate mustache for the occasion – a rallying sign for Movember – Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of the city and president of the metropolis, detailed a series of measures, generally placed according to him under the sign of “the kindness”, to fight against the isolation that can strike those who suffer from this illness. And raise awareness internally about supporting agents. Working groups on the issue will be formed, training scheduled and several conferences organized on this theme. “It is still too often a taboo subject. In addition to medical suffering, there are psychological, emotional and social difficulties,” notes the 47-year-old socialist representative, adding that “if sometimes it is necessary to isolate oneself to take the time to treatment, it is essential to have the possibility of resuming your activity if you wish. It’s up to us to facilitate this return to employment.” A protocol will be put in place to this effect in conjunction with the human resources services of each community.
What Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol had not communicated beforehand, however, was that this meeting was more personal and the opportunity for him to reveal that he himself was suffering from bladder cancer. . “I wanted to do it with complete transparency,” he says even though he waited more than two years since his first operation in February 2022. “We are initially in shock, almost in denial about the departure. And then after the operation and a first treatment, I thought it was behind me. If that had been the case, I probably would have kept it to myself.” Two recurrences, followed by two new operations, convinced him that it was necessary to make his illness public. “To date, I have no metastases. For the rest, I am in good health,” he wrote in a letter published on his social networks this Wednesday morning. His illness has “in no way prevented him from working or acting for the City of Rouen, its Metropolis and more broadly for my country”, insists this executive of the Socialist Party, an outspoken opponent of first secretary Olivier Faure.
A national aura which has also earned him numerous messages of support, such as that of former president François Hollande who praises X as “an example of sincerity, courage and commitment, which gives strength to those and those who fight with perseverance against illness.” Or even that of Raphaël Glucksmann. More locally, the centrist mayor of Bihorel (Seine-Maritime), Pascal Houbron, who has been withdrawn for several months due to his illness, wanted to send him a message of hope: “We will emerge stronger and more determined to continue our personal and elective activities. »
For now, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol is completing the last phase of immunotherapy treatment and will be under surveillance in the coming months. And for many years. No resignation on the horizon, however, for the one who claims “to have never been so determined to act to improve the daily lives of the people of Rouen”. However, there is now doubt about his participation in the next municipal elections of 2026, “too far away to commit to now”. We remember that in 2013, when she was nominated by the UDI for the municipal elections in Rouen, the centrist Catherine Morin-Desailly passed over “for reasons of health”. Time will tell if Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol will be able to run for a new mandate.
