CONGRESSMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS FIGURE SAYS HE HAS PANCREATIC CANCER

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, the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists in a group once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said in a statement that the cancer was detected this month during a routine medical visit. The 79-year-old Democrat said subsequent tests confirmed the diagnosis of stage IV pancreatic cancer. An Atlanta Democrat sometimes called the “conscience of the Congress,” Lewis is known for the prominent role he had in the 1960s civil rights struggles.