Lewis reveals cancer diagnosis
ATLANTA — Congressman John Lewis of Georgia announced Sunday that he has stage IV pancreatic cancer, vowing he will keep serving and fight the disease with the tenacity with which he battled racial discrimination and other inequalities dating to the civil rights era.
Lewis, 79, said in a statement that the cancer was detected earlier this month during a routine medical visit. He said subsequent tests confirmed the diagnosis of stage IV pancreatic cancer.
“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” Lewis added.
Lewis added that he decided he will return to the nation’s capital in coming days to continue his work and begin his treatment plan.
“I may miss a few votes during this period, but with God’s grace I will be back on the front lines soon,” he said in asking for prayers.
Lewis led hundreds of protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Then 25, he was at the head of the march when he was knocked to the ground and beaten by police, fracturing his skull.
He won a seat in Congress in 1986.