Jim Rosica
State Sen. Dorothy Hukill says she has been diagnosed with cervical cancer and is undergoing treatment.
Hukill, a Port Orange Republican, disclosed her condition Monday in a letter to Senate President-designate Joe Negron, asking to be excused from Tuesday’s Organization Session.
“I am fortunate that it (is) in the early stages and my medical team advises that my prognosis for full recovery is good,” she wrote.
According to the American Cancer Society, “if detected early, cervical cancer is one of the most successfully treatable cancers.” It estimates almost 13,000 new cases will be diagnosed by the end of this year.
But the death rate has decreased by more than half over the last four decades, largely because of increased and better testing, the society’s website says.
Hukill, an attorney and chair of the Senate’s Finance and Tax Committee, has long been interested in law and technology issues.
Earlier this year, she said she planned to file legislation covering the use of “cryptocurrencies” such as bitcoin.
She sponsored a measure that became law in 2014 prohibiting Florida public schools from collecting or using student “biometric data” — fingerprints, handprints, and retinal scans — under an education data privacy measure.
More recently, Hukill’s proposal on “digital assets” also became law. It allows someone to designate another to have access and control of financial accounts, social media, and most everything else one has online.
