Former Nebraska Congressman Brad Ashford starting brain cancer treatments next week

WOWT 6 News Live at 6:30
Published: Feb. 22, 2022 at 7:25 PM CST
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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.

Thank you for all of your kind words of encouragement. When these kinds of things happen, it pushes you to relentlessly...

Posted by Brad Ashford on Sunday, February 20, 2022

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