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Congressman
John
Lewis
says
cancer
is his
latest
battle
By
BILL
CORMIER
apnews.com
ATLANTA
- As a
civil
rights
activist
at 25,
John
Lewis
was
beaten
so badly
his
skull
was
fractured
and the
TV
images
from an
Alabama
bridge
in the
1960s
forced a
nation’s
awakening
to
racial
discrimination.
As a
congressman
today at
79,
Lewis is
facing a
foe like
none
before:
advanced
pancreatic
cancer.
The
veteran
Democrat
congressman
from
Georgia
has
fought
many
struggles
in his
lifetime.
Yet, he
said, “I
have
never
faced a
fight
quite
like the
one I
have
now,”
announcing
Sunday
in
Washington
that the
cancer
was
detected
earlier
this
month
and
confirmed
in a
diagnosis.
Lewis
has had
many
battles,
and this
he views
as one
more
dawning.
He was
arrested
at least
40 times
in the
civil
rights
era,
several
more
times as
a
congressman
since
being
elected
in 1986
and only
recently
he has
been
rallying
to help
reunite
immigrant
families
separated
by the
Trump
administration.
The
youngest
and last
survivor
of the
Big Six
civil
rights
activists,
a group
once led
by the
Rev.
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.,
Lewis
made
clear
that he
has no
plans to
step
aside
from
power
while he
undergoes
treatment.
He
said
being
elected
to
Congress
“has
been the
honor of
a
lifetime”
and that
he will
continue
working
for his
constituents
from
Capitol
Hill.
“I
have
been in
some
kind of
fight —
for
freedom,
equality,
basic
human
rights —
for
nearly
my
entire
life,”
he said.
Added
Lewis:
“I have
a
fighting
chance.”
He
declined
to say
where he
would
receive
cancer
treatment
or what
that
would
entail.
But he
said he
may not
always
be
around
the
halls of
Congress
in the
coming
weeks.
“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
also
said he
was
“clear-eyed
about
the
prognosis”
even as
doctors
have
told him
that
recent
medical
advances
have
made
this
type of
cancer
treatable
in many
cases.
He added
that
“treatment
options
are no
longer
as
debilitating
as they
once
were.”
The
American
Cancer
Society
estimates
3% of
patients
with
stage 4
pancreatic
cancer
are
alive
five
years
after
being
diagnosed.
Sometimes
called
the
“conscience
of the
Congress,”
Lewis
led
hundreds
of
protesters
in the
1965
Bloody
Sunday
march
across
the
Edmund
Pettus
Bridge
in
Selma,
Alabama.
He was
at the
head of
the
march
when he
was
knocked
to the
ground
and
beaten
by
police.
The
nationally
televised
images
forced
the
country’s
attention
on the
racial
inequalities
being
fought
by King
and so
many
others.
Lewis
turned
to
politics
in 1981,
when he
was
elected
to the
Atlanta
City
Council.
In
2011 he
received
the
Presidential
Medal of
Freedom
from
President
Barack
Obama,
who had
marched
with
Lewis
hand in
hand in
Selma on
the 50th
anniversary
of the
Bloody
Sunday
attack.
House
Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi
was
among
those
who sent
her best
wishes
to Lewis
after
the
announcement
of his
illness.
“We
are all
praying
for you
following
this
diagnosis.
John,
know
that
generations
of
Americans
have you
in their
thoughts
&
prayers
as you
face
this
fight.”
She said
in a
statement.
“We are
all
praying
that you
are
comfortable.
We know
that you
will be
well.”
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