Former Senator Announces Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis: ‘It’s a Death Sentence’

Former Sen. 👤Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) announced devastating news Tuesday — he has Stage 4 🎗️Pancreatic Cancer.

Sasse, 53, who served two terms as senator, wrote a lengthy post on X, stating he received the diagnosis last week, The Hill reported.

“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four 🎗️Pancreatic Cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”

“I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all,” he continued.

“I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight,” Sasse said.

“One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more,” he wrote. “Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.”

Sasse left the 🏛️Senate in 2023 and became present of the University of Florida. He left that post after more than a year due to his wife’s, Melissa,“recent epilepsy diagnosis and a new batch of memory issues.”

“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst,” Sasse wrote. “As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”

Sasse continued to work at the university, teaching classes at its Hamilton Center.