Obama Cancels Events to Visit Grandmother in Hawaii (Update1)

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will cancel campaign events in Wisconsin and Iowa later this week to travel to Hawaii to visit his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, whose health is in ``very serious'' condition, senior adviser Robert Gibbs said.

Obama, 47, will leave for his childhood home of Honolulu on Oct. 23 and return to the campaign on Oct. 25, Gibbs said.

Gibbs declined to elaborate on the nature of Dunham's illness. The candidate's grandmother, who turns 86 next week, was released from a hospital last week, and remains in serious condition.

``Recently, his grandmother has become ill and, in the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious,'' Gibbs said.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, was raised by his single mother and his maternal grandparents in Honolulu.

``Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life,'' Gibbs said.

Campaign events in Madison, Wisconsin, and Des Moines, Iowa, will be canceled, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in West Palm Beach, Florida, at kchipman@bloomberg.net.