Former Nebraska Congressman Brad Ashford starting brain cancer treatments next week

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Former Nebraska Congressman Brad Ashford talked with 6 News on Tuesday about the road ahead.

“Several weeks ago, I started to lose my left side. I couldn’t walk well and my balance gave in.”

Ashford had called it “a little brain cancer” a few days earlier online — some levity in the face of the unknown.

“I didn’t think it was a tumor. I had some heart issues impacted by pulmonary hypertension,” he said.

When you’ve spent a couple of years in Washington as a congressman, many of the legislative battles are steep, and the path to victory can be hard to see.

Medicine is sometimes like that, too.

“They said, ‘You’re a complex patient.’ And I said, ‘I’m probably a complex person, too, so it fits,’ ” Ashford said.

From his two years representing Nebraska’s 2nd District in Congress to his 16 years in the state legislature, the Democrat and attorney has spent a lifetime trying to make a difference.

His focus these days had been on troubled young people: finding them good jobs, keeping them out of detention, and reuniting families.

“When something like this happens, you think back to what you really stand for. I woke up — well, not really woke up since I wasn’t sleeping — and thought, ‘What do we call this?’ The problems we need to solve are bringing families together and connecting them with hope,” Ashford said.

Hope is something the 72-year-old could use now, too.

“We’re going to start treatments next week at the Med Center,” Ashford said. Those are targeted treatments on the brain cancer.

Ashford also mentioned a heartfelt thanks for the abundant number of well-wishers who have come forward since he talked publicly about his health.

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