The Georgia congressman said he will continue to serve as he begins his plan for treatment.
Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and civil rights icon, announced Sunday that he has been diagnosed with, and is undergoing treatment for, stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
The congressman said that doctors discovered the cancer during a routine medical visit and that testing this month reconfirmed the diagnosis. Lewis, 79, remained optimistic about his treatment. Lewis is widely known for never giving up, and he played a significant role in the civil rights movement. He joined sit-ins when he was 20, participated in the freedom rides at 21, and spoke during the March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. at 23. Alabama state troopers fractured Lewis’ head when he was 25 on what became known as Bloody Sunday, when Lewis led several hundred other activists in a peaceful protest march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
“To my constituents: being your representative in Congress is the honor of a lifetime,” he said. “I will return to Washington in coming days to continue our work and begin my treatment plan, which will occur over the next several weeks. I may miss a few votes during this period, but with God’s grace I will be back on the front lines soon.”
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