US Senator John McCain lost his battle with glioblastoma - an aggressive form of brain cancer - and breathed his last on Sunday at the age of 81. McCain, a celebrated Vietnam War hero and a two-time presidential candidate was diagnosed with a tumour on July 2017 and was undergoing medical treatment since then.
“Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 pm on August 25, 2018. With the senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family,†his office said in a statement.
A maverick Republican, McCain had many disagreements with his fellow politicians but no one could question his integrity and love for his country ever.
"The days and years to come will not be the same without my dad - but they will be good days, filled with life and love, because of the example he lived for us," McCain’s daughter Meghan wrote in a statement shared on Twitter.
The 2008 Republican presidential nominee and a six-term senator was diagnosed with tumour during an eye surgery on July 2017.
While he had many disagreements with fellow politicians, the Republican stalwart’s integrity was not at question, and condolences came swift from the highest reaches of American politics after his passing.
Condolences came quickly from the highest reaches of American politics after his demise.
Former president Barack Obama, to whom McCain lost the presidential election in 2008, said: “we are all in his debt.â€
“John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds and competed at the highest level of politics,†Obama said in a statement.
“But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher—the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched and sacrificed.â€
“I always admired and respected John from the opposite side of the aisle, because he thrived under pressure, and would work to find common ground, no matter how hard,†said former vice president Al Gore.
President Donald Trump also sent his “deepest sympathies and respect†after the passing of John McCain.
McCain had a special bonding with Senator Lindsey Graham and former senator Joe Lieberman and the trio were named ‘Three Amigos’.
Now when the trio lost its engine, Graham expressed his sorrow and said, “America and Freedom have lost one of her greatest champions... And I’ve lost one of my dearest friends and mentor.â€
McCain had been absent from the Senate floor for months due to his treatment of glioblastoma at his Arizona home. Glioblastoma is the same form of brain cancer that took away the life of another Senate and Democrat icon Ted Kennedy in 2009.
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