Former deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer gravely ill aged 73

John Howard’s former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has been battling cancer for 10 years. The 73-year-old is now gravely ill at a hospital in the state’s far south.

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Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer is gravely ill in a southern NSW hospital.

Mr Fischer, 73, has been battling acute leukaemia and cancer generally for 10 years.

He is currently being treated at the Albury Wodonga Cancer Centre, The Australian reports.

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has been battling cancer for the last 10 years. Picture: AAP

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In May, when he opened a museum dedicated to his life at his birthplace of Lockhart, near Wagga Wagga, he revealed he was hoping for a remission.

“Almost in remission, not quite. I am just uplifted by this nice gallery,” he said at the time.

Mr Fischer, who first became an MP at the age of 24, was National leader from 1990 to 1999 and deputy prime minister in the Howard government from 1996 to 1999.

John Howard and Tim Fischer served Australia as Prime minister and deputy prime minister. Picture: Ray Strange.

He quit politics in 2001.

Since retiring from public life, Mr Fischer moved with wife Judy to a cattle farm at Mudgegonga, near Yackandandah in Victoria’s northeast.

Mr Fischer, who attended Xavier College in Melbourne, was conscripted into the Australian Army and served in the Vietnam War as a platoon commander and transport officer with the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.

Tim and Judy Fischer on their cattle farm at Mudgegonga.

He was elected as a state MP in 1971 as a 24-year-old, and held various roles in NSW parliament before resigning in 1984 to contest the western NSW federal seat of Farrer.

Mr Fischer has faced a series of cancer battles in recent years, ­including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma and ­leukaemia.