Cindy McCain suffered a stroke in Italy amid her work as the head of the U.N. World Food Program. She will take leave from her post as she recovers, she said in a statement.
The 71-year-old humanitarian — the widow of late Sen. John McCain and mother of former talk show host Meghan McCain — plans to recover at home in Arizona following the incident. (Per AP News, Cindy’s stroke was “mild.”)
“I want to thank the medical staff in Italy for the excellent treatment I received,” Cindy — who is a mother of seven, including her three stepchildren — said in a statement, the Associated Press reported. “My recovery is progressing well thanks to their outstanding care.”
According to her statement, per the AP, Cindy will make a “full recovery” and plans to return to her top position at the WFP in four to six weeks when she gets the OK from her doctor.
Cindy McCain’s Health Scares Over the Years
This is the second stroke Cindy has suffered in just over 20 years; she had her first stroke in 2004 when she was 49 years old.
While out to lunch with friends at the time, “I tried to speak and found I couldn’t talk or walk,” she recalled to Brain & Lifein 2010. After Cindy was rushed to the hospital, she found out she had suffered a minor stroke — due to her high blood pressure.
She has been open about her additional health woes over the years, sharing her battle with debilitating migraines — which could have both a genetic component and could be an affect of her first stroke — a diagnosis that took her years to receive. In fact, she was 40 years old when she eventually received the actual diagnosis, Cindy told Brain & Life. According to Cindy, sexism played a huge role in her lack of diagnosis.
“I saw many doctors who seemed condescending and wrote me off as being ‘a neurotic senator’s wife,'” she recalled. “Their advice was to go home, relax, and have a glass of wine.”
Ultimately, it was Cindy’s determination to be taken seriously — as well as a diary she kept and the opening of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona — to eventually receive the migraine diagnosis.
