Rep. John Lewis said on Sunday that he is suffering from Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and will undergo treatment, though he plans to keep serving his district.

Doctors discovered the Georgia Democrat’s condition in a routine December medical visit and subsequent tests. The diagnosis has been reconfirmed, Lewis said in a statement.

“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,” he said. “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.”

Lewis said that he is “clear-eyed” about the prognosis, but that his doctors believe recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable. He said has “a fighting chance,” and will return to Congress in the coming days to get back to work — though he said he might miss a few votes.

The long-serving congressman, 79, has represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District since 1987. He is a civil rights icon who subscribed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent resistance to segregation.

A student activist who was one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was part of the Freedom Rides in 1961, the March on Washington in 1963 and the Bloody Sunday March in 1965, where he was clubbed by a state trooper in Selma, Ala. President Barack Obama awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 2011.

“With God’s grace I will be back on the front lines soon,” Lewis said Sunday. “Please keep me in your prayers as I begin this journey.”

Lewis serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, leading the Oversight subcommittee. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a Sunday statement that his “heart breaks” at the diagnosis and that Lewis has been “a guiding light” on the committee, on Capitol Hill and for the nation.

“I have no doubt that John will fight this terrible disease with the tenacity that’s characterized his lifelong service and pursuit of justice,” Neal said.


Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine