Former President Jimmy Carter described himself as "surprisingly at ease" when announcing that he will undergo radiation treatment for cancer spots on his brain.
Carter offered specific details of his diagnosis at a news conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday morning one week after announcing that cancer was discovered throughout his body in the wake of liver surgery.
The 90-year-old former president explained that the mass removed from his liver on Aug. 3 was later discovered to be melanoma and that a recent MRI revealed that melanoma spots also exist on his brain.
"I just thought I had a few weeks left. But I was surprisingly at ease," Carter said Thursday, according to NBC News. "I’ve had a wonderful life, I’ve had thousands of friends, and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence."
"So I was surprisingly at ease," he continued. "Much more so than my wife was. But now I feel that you know that it’s in the hands of God and my worship, and I’ll be prepared for anything that comes."
Carter anticipates that other areas of cancer will be discovered when he commences treatment. The former Democratic president has a family history of pancreatic cancer, as his father, two sisters and brother died of the disease. His mother also suffered from pancreatic cancer.
Carter explained that he will step back from his role at the nonprofit Carter Center he founded in 1982 due to the cancer treatment.
"I can’t really anticipate how I’ll be feeling obviously," he said. Carter credited his religious faith with helping to ground him in the wake of the cancer diagnosis.
"I do have deep religious faith, which I’m very grateful for, and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t go into an attitude of despair or anger or anything like that," Carter explained. "I was just completely at ease."