Bob Dole in 2019.Photo: Tom Brenner/Getty
Former Republican presidential and vice-presidential nomineeBob Dole— an Army veteran who spent nearly 30 years in the Senate — has stage four lung cancer and will begin treatment next week.
Dole, whoturned 97in July, announced his diagnosis in a statement on Thursday morning. He said he was “recently” diagnosed and would start treatment on Monday.
“While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges of their own,” he said.
Dole has had previous health issues, including a 1991 surgery to remove his prostate gland, which was found to have a “slow-growing cancer,” according toThe New York Times.
He served as a Kansas senator from 1969 to 1996, where he was twice the majority leader in his final decade in office.
He was the Republican nominee in 1996, though he lost to President Bill Clinton.
In 2003, he launched the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, located at the University of Kansas campus.
Bob Dole.Getty
Bob Dole.Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty
Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, served as a senator herself, representing North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. The tworan into one another in1972 at his office.
“All of a sudden, the side door opens and in comes Bob Dole. And I look up and I think, ‘Gee, he’s a good-looking guy,’ " Elizabeth said in 2019 of seeing her husband, then a rising Republican star, for the first time. “And he says he wrote my name on the back of his blotter.”
Several figures from both sides of the political aisle popped up to send well wishes for the couple, including former PresidentsGeorge W. BushandClinton.
“Happy birthday to both Elizabeth and Bob Dole: two great Americans, two wonderful people and two friends,” said Bush, 74, in avideo message, as Clinton, 73, said: “Bob and Elizabeth, happy birthday. I’m glad to add my voice to the many thousands of people who wish you that.”
“And always thank you for setting examples of working in good faith to find common ground,” added Clinton, who beat Dole, then the Republican candidate in the 1996 presidential election.
House SpeakerNancy Pelosiwas also on hand to share kind words with the Doles.
“Mr. Leader you are a person of great integrity and deep dignity and extraordinary courage,” said Pelosi, 80. “Elizabeth, you are an angel, and everybody knows that too. You are both American heroes.”
source: people.com
