sharing his grim prognosis following the diagnosis.

“Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” he wrote. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”

“I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.”

Sasse served as the junior United States senator for Nebraska from 2015 to 2023. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial in 2021.

After resigning, Sasse went on to serve as the University of Florida president. He left the position last year to focus on family after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.

While sharing his own health update, Sasse admitted that he’s got “less time than I’d prefer” and it’s hard to cope with as a husband and father. He then went on to praise his family and how great they’ve been.

“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst,” he said. “As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”

“Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say ‘hope’ when what we mean is ‘optimism,’ ” he continued. “To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.”

“A well-lived life demands reality — stiffer stuff,” he added. “That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.”

Sasse ended the letter by telling his followers that he’ll have to say later but he’s “not going down without a fight.”

“One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jaw dropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and ,” he wrote. “Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.”

“But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given’ (Isaiah 9),” he said. “With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses.”

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Pancreatic cancer ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. It is rarely curable and has a five-year survival rate of less than 13%.

Because there are so few symptoms in its early stages and there is no screening or test, the cancer is usually not detected until in advanced stages, making it one of the most deadly cancers.