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.
