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{"source_url": "https://patch.com", "url": "https://patch.com/georgia/midtown/rep-john-lewis-atlanta-battling-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer", "title": "Rep. John Lewis Of Atlanta Battling Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer", "top_image": "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg", "meta_img": "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg", "images": ["https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/SponsoredbyRing.png", "https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/product_neighbors.png", "https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/apple_appstore.png", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/23263837/20191227/061502/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-editorial-10510384s___27181143828.jpg?width=200", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg?width=705", "https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/footer_patch_logo.png", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/22872995/20191111/013113/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-510721921___11133031920.jpg?width=200", "https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/logo-patch-dark.svg", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/590561/20191126/014650/ea-nye-instasquare___26134645804.jpg?width=100", "https://cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/google_play.png", "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/23263837/20191227/060401/styles/patch_image/public/new-jersey-lottery-ticket-power-ball-katie-kausch___27180040737.jpg?width=200", "https://b.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=21043158&cv=2.0&cj=1", "https://d5nxst8fruw4z.cloudfront.net/atrk.gif?account=qKjWj1a0Sn00GK", "https://patch.com/img/cdn/assets/layout/patch_white_bg.jpg"], "movies": [], "text": "ATLANTA, GA \u2014 Long-time Atlanta Congressman and civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis, 79, said Sunday that he has been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Doctors have told Lewis that he has a chance to beat the disease, and he plans to return to Washington, D.C., soon to begin treatment and return to work on Capitol Hill.\n\nLewis recently learned from doctors following a routine medical visit, and subsequent tests, that he has cancer.\n\n\"I have been in some kind of fight \u2013 for freedom, equality, basic human rights \u2013 for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,\" Lewis said. \"While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis, doctors have told me that recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, that treatment options are no longer as debilitating as they once were, and that I have a fighting chance.\n\n\"So I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the beloved community. We still have many bridges to cross.\"\n\nPrayers, well-wishes and encouragement for Lewis as he faces cancer were shared by state and national Democratic leaders, along with entertainment luminaries.\n\nIf there's one thing I love about @RepJohnLewis, it's his incomparable will to fight. I know he's got a lot more of that left in him. Praying for you, my friend.\n\n\u2014 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 30, 2019\n\n.@repjohnlewis is America's conscience and Georgia's heart. We stand with him as he fights one more battle - to defeat pancreatic cancer. As he wages that war, he continues to do the people's work, buoyed by the prayers and good will of millions. God bless you, my friend.\n\n\u2014 Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) December 30, 2019\n\nSen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, said, \"John Lewis is one of the strongest people I know. He already beat Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan\u2014cancer is next. Please join me in lifting him and his family in prayer.\"\n\nAnd actor Mark Hamill, star of the \"Star Wars\" films, tweeted, \"I'm hoping with all my soul that civil-rights icon, conscience of our country & national treasure @repjohnlewis kicks cancer's ASS!\"\n\nLewis, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump for several years, recently gained attention for his impassioned comments urging his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote to impeach the president.\n\n\n\nThe impeachment proceedings were a sad day in American history, he said. \"It's a sad day, it is not a day of joy. \u2026For some this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history,\" Lewis said.\n\n\n\nIn January 2017 Lewis said that Trump's presidential election wasn't legitimate, making claims of Russian influence in the vote.\n\nIn response, Trump had harsh words to say about Lewis' Fifth Congressional District, which includes downtown Atlanta, along with surrounding communities \u2014 some impoverished, others affluent. Saying the congressman should spend more time helping his district, Trump referred to the area as being \"in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).\"\n\n\n\nGeorgia's Fifth Congressional District includes parts of Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties, including most of the City of Atlanta. Other cities included in the Fifth District are Brookhaven, Decatur, and South Fulton.\n\n\n\nLewis is a member of the Democratic Party leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and has served as a chief deputy whip since 1991 and senior chief deputy whip since 2003. He has been awarded many honorary degrees, including the highest civilian honor of the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.\n\n\n\nLewis said he will return to Washington in coming days to continue his work and begin a treatment plan, which will occur over the next several weeks. The Congressman said he may miss a few votes during this period, but \"with God's grace I will be back on the front lines soon.\"\n\n\"Please keep me in your prayers as I begin this journey,\" his statement concluded.\n\nLewis was born the son of sharecroppers on February 21, 1940, outside of Troy, Alabama. He grew up on his family's farm and attended segregated public schools in Pike County, Alabama. As a young boy, he was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which he heard on radio broadcasts.\n\nAs a student at Fisk University, John Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Lewis risked his life on those rides many times by sitting in seats reserved for white patrons. He was also beaten severely by angry mobs and arrested by police for challenging the injustice of Jim Crow segregation in the South, his biography says.\n\nFrom 1963 to 1966, Lewis was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which he helped form, to organize student activism, including sit-ins and other activities.\n\nAt the age of 23, he was an architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in August 1963.\n\nIn 1964, John Lewis coordinated SNCC efforts to organize voter registration drives and community action programs during the Mississippi Freedom Summer.\n\nThe following year, Lewis helped spearhead the protest march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. The marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became known as \"Bloody Sunday.\" News broadcasts and photographs showing the violence helped hasten the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his office said.\n\n", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": [], "publish_date": "Sun Dec 29 18:36:28 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Rep. John Lewis Diagnosed With Pancreatic Cancer - Midtown, GA - Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta said Sunday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and plans to start treatment soon.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "//cdn.patchcdn.com/assets/layout/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "description": "Rep. John Lewis Diagnosed With Pancreatic Cancer - Midtown, GA - Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta said Sunday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and plans to start treatment soon.", "fb": {"app_id": 521361477908471, "pages": 57421062540}, "og": {"url": "https://patch.com/georgia/midtown/rep-john-lewis-atlanta-battling-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer", "type": "article", "title": "Rep. John Lewis Of Atlanta Battling Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer", "locale": "en_US", "image": {"identifier": "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg", "width": 800, "height": 600}, "description": "Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta said Sunday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and plans to start treatment soon.", "site_name": "Midtown, GA Patch", "updated_time": "2019-12-29T20:40:14-05:00"}, "article": {"published_time": "2019-12-29T18:36:28-05:00", "modified_time": "2019-12-29T20:40:14-05:00", "section": "Politics & Government"}, "twitter": {"image": "https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/714975/20191229/063625/styles/patch_image/public/b2___29182847867.jpg", "card": "summary_large_image"}, "referrer": "origin-when-cross-origin", "apple-itunes-app": "app-id=430049632, app-argument=https://patch.com/28492826"}, "canonical_link": "https://patch.com/georgia/midtown/rep-john-lewis-atlanta-battling-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer"}