John Lewis: Civil rights icon and US congressman announces he has pancreatic cancer

Lewis, 79, mentioned he was identified following a routine medical go to with subsequent checks that reconfirmed the analysis. The long-time Georgia congressman will endure remedy for the most cancers.

“I’ve been in some type of battle — for freedom, equality, primary human rights — for practically my complete life. I’ve by no means confronted a battle fairly just like the one I’ve now,” Lewis, who in March 1965 joined forces with Martin Luther King Jr. to steer a voting rights march out out Selma, Alabama, mentioned in a press release.

He continued later: “Whereas I’m clear-eyed in regards to the prognosis, docs have instructed me that current medical advances have made this sort of most cancers treatable in lots of circumstances, that remedy choices are not as debilitating as they as soon as had been, and that I’ve a combating probability.”

Pancreatic most cancers was the third-leading reason for dying from most cancers in the USA in 2018, after lung and colorectal cancers, in response to the Nationwide Most cancers Institute. The most cancers, on common and throughout all levels, has a five-year survival fee of 9%, in response to the American Most cancers Society.

However Lewis, who’s in his 17th time period as a member of Congress, is vowing to proceed his work, stating that he’ll return to Washington within the coming days to start his remedy plan, which can final a number of weeks.

“I’ll miss a number of votes throughout this era, however with God’s grace I can be again on the entrance strains quickly,” he mentioned.

Lewis has represented Georgia’s fifth Congressional District, which incorporates a lot of Atlanta, since first being elected in 1986.

A frontrunner of a civil rights group referred to as Pupil Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, he was one of many individuals in the important thing 1965 civil rights protest pushing for voting rights from Selma to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery. Lewis — who had his cranium damaged by white law enforcement officials in the course of the march throughout the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma — was, by his personal depend, arrested greater than 40 occasions throughout his days of civil rights activism.

“So I’ve determined to do what I do know to do and do what I’ve all the time carried out: I’m going to battle it and preserve combating for the Beloved Neighborhood. We nonetheless have many bridges to cross,” Lewis mentioned Sunday.

Information of Lewis’ analysis shook Washington Sunday, prompting an outpouring of assist. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Lewis in a tweet that “we’re all praying for you following this analysis.”

“John, know that generations of People have you ever of their ideas & prayers as you face this battle. We’re all praying that you’re comfy,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, mentioned. “We all know that you may be properly.”

Former President Invoice Clinton echoed the identical sentiment, tweeting, “If there’s anybody with the energy and braveness to battle this, it is you, John. Hillary and I really like you, and we be part of with thousands and thousands of different People in praying for you and your loved ones.”

And former President Barack Obama — who in 2011 introduced Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor — wrote: “If there’s one factor I really like about (Rep. John Lewis), it is his incomparable will to battle. I do know he is acquired much more of that left in him. Praying for you, my buddy.”

Lately, Lewis has drawn headlines for stirring up what he calls “good bother” for his vocal opposition to President Donald Trump — together with voting to question the President earlier this month.

In July, he supplied a forceful rebuke of Trump’s racist tweets towards 4 Democratic congresswomen of colour.

“I do know racism once I see it. I do know racism once I really feel it. And on the highest stage of presidency, there isn’t any room for racism,” he mentioned.

“It sows the seeds of violence and destroys the hopes and desires of individuals. The world is watching. They’re shocked and dismayed as a result of it appears now we have misplaced our method as a nation, as a proud and nice individuals.”

This story has been up to date with extra developments Sunday.

CNN’s Kevin Bohn, Raymond Arke, Gregory Krieg and Dana Bash contributed to this report.

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