Rep. Biden — like his son, John, a former vice president — has suffered from brain cancer over the past year and a half. In addition to his son’s death from brain cancer in 2018, Biden suffered brain cancer himself in 2012. Despite suffering from those illnesses and others, including prostate cancer, he has endured to inspire hope through speeches and visits to troops.
“I’m here because I hope to — it’s not about me,” he told The Washington Post last week. “But I do hope and I pray that that raises awareness of a public health crisis that will enable other people to survive what I’ve survived,”
Biden is particularly fond of going around talking about helping prevent brain cancer. The Daily Beast reported about the former vice president’s gratitude to his son for inspiring him to have a change of heart about helping others.
“When my son Joe died, he gave me the ability to understand that I had to leave my career,” he told the Daily Beast. “If he hadn’t died, I’d still be in the Senate.
But as the Daily Beast noted, Biden is coming full circle. “That’s how he first became interested in brain cancer” the former vice president said.
This “has been frustrating,” Biden said last week. The problem is: The disease is among the deadliest cancers — more than 595,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. And every year, 12,000 people die from it.
“We have to act. Now is the time,” Biden said.