Vice President Joe Biden announced his son, Beau Biden, passed away after battling brain cancer.
According to ABC News, the vice president said in a statement, “It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill, and I announce the passing of our husband, brother, and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.”
Beau Biden, who was 46, leaves behind his wife, Hallie, and two children, Hunter and Natalie. He had been receiving care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and had been deciding on whether to run for governor of Delaware.
Biden had been a veteran of the Iraq War and he was also a lawyer. President Obama also reached out in support to the family, saying “Beau was a good, big-hearted devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched- and he lives on in their hearts.”
The eldest child of Joe Biden and his first wife, the late Neilia Hunter, Beau had received medical treatment in 2013 when he experienced symptoms that left him feeling weak. Later that year after receiving chemotherapy and radiation, doctors declared he was healthy. However, he had experienced a recurrence of the cancer just this spring.
USA Today reported that Biden had been an attorney general for Delaware for two terms.
Beau’s mother and his sister, Naomi, died tragically in a 1972 car accident. Two other siblings, Ashley and Hunter, along with three nieces, survive him.
Image via Dara Kushner/INFevents.com