Jimmy Carter’s cancer has spread to his brain
“Hope for the best and accept whatever comes” former US President and Nobel Peace Prize Jimmy Carter, 90, said Thursday he began a small radiation therapy for cancerous brain tumors.
Featuring great serenity and showing very precise in his explanations, the 39th US president (1977-1981), architect of the Camp David accords, said his cancer tumor detected during a surgery to remove a liver, and had spread to his brain.
“I’m going to get my first radiation for melanoma this afternoon,” said Jimmy Carter, who is one of four former American presidents still alive, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
“It is likely that (metastases) appear elsewhere in my body,” he said in a press conference full of emotion from the headquarters of the “Carter Center” that he created over 30 years ago in Atlanta, United States.
Since leaving the White House in 1981 after a stinging defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, found a man’s vocation to peace by multiplying the humanitarian and mediation of Cuba in North Korea through Ethiopia.
The former president was deeply marked by the nightmare of the American hostages in Iran in 1979-80, which earned him a reputation of weakness and naivete internationally.
Referring four treatment sessions at intervals of three weeks, he explained that his doctors had identified four small melanomas of 2 millimeters.
“I will try as much as possible to continue teaching at Emory University (Atlanta) and participate in some meetings (the Carter Center),” he continued, stressing that his schedule would now related to his treatment he would give “absolute priority”.
Asked about his state of mind, the former president, staunch Baptist, responded: “I am deeply religious and was pleasantly surprised that I was sinking nor in despair or in anger,” he explained, relaxed, joking repeatedly with journalists.
What message does it apply to those who, like him, are suffering from cancer? “A message of hope,” replied the man took an unusual path, the affairs of a naval officer, the owner of a family peanuts farm for the presidency. “I’ll have 91 years old on 1 October, I am grateful and hopeful.”
Whoever was sometimes ironically called “best ex-president of the United States”, returned at length about his career.
“My life since leaving the White House was, on a personal level, more rewarding although the Presidency was of course the pinnacle of my political career and has also allowed the work at the Carter Center,” Jimmy Carter added.
What is the greatest wish of the former president who has made the fight for human rights a priority?
“Internationally, I would say peace for Israel and its neighbors,” Jimmy Carter said while expressing his pessimism and his “despair” on this point.
“Today, the chances (of a peace agreement) are lowest. The process is almost at a standstill. The Israeli government does not want to see lead a two-state solution that is desired by all other countries of the world. ”
Asked about his regrets, he stressed he would like to succeed to free American hostages held in Iran (who regained freedom January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration).
“I would have been reelected … But that would have prevented the Carter Center,” he added, smiling.