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Former President Jimmy Carter Says He Is Cancer-Free

Former President Jimmy Carter at a Habitat for Humanity site in Memphis.
Andrea Morales for NPR
Former President Jimmy Carter at a Habitat for Humanity site in Memphis.

Former President Jimmy Carter told his congregation on Sunday that his cancer is gone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Carter, 91, broke the good news during the Sunday School class he teaches at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga.

The paper reports:

"'He said he got a scan this week and the cancer was gone,' Jill Stuckey said by phone from Maranatha, where Carter was still in the midst of teaching to about 350 people, many of them visitors. 'The church, everybody here, just erupted in applause.'"

Citing Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, the Associated Press reports that doctors did not detect any cancer during his previous scan.

During a press conference in August, Carter announced that his melanoma had spread to his liver and brain. He seemed resigned and said that he was at ease with his potential death.

"I've had a wonderful life," he said.

But since then, Carter has continued to teach Sunday School and continued to help build homes for Habitat for Humanity.

"I'm feeling better than anybody expected me to so I'm still maintaining a pretty normal schedule, I'd say," Carter told NPR during an interview last month.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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