US Vice President Biden’s son Beau dies of cancer, aged 46

US Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau Biden, has died aged 46 from brain cancer after a long battle with the illness.

In this 1985 file photo, Sen. Joe Biden holds his daughter, Ashley, while taking a re-enacted oath of office from Vice President George Bush as his sons Beau, foreground, and Hunter hold the bible. Picture: AP Photo/Lana Harris.

WASHINGTON: Beau Biden, the eldest son of US Vice-President Joe Biden and former attorney-general of Delaware, has died of brain cancer aged 46.

Beau Biden, who had served in Iraq as a lawyer with the Delaware Army National Guard, had been undergoing treatment at the Walter Reed Medical Centre just outside Washington.

“He battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life,” the Vice-President’s family said in a statement on Saturday.

“The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us — especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two ­remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.”

Beau Biden was a popular Democrat in his east coast state of Delaware and had once been ­expected to follow his father on to the national political stage.

He joined the National Guard in 2003 as a judge advocate general, or military lawyer, and deployed to Iraq in 2008 as his father was campaigning for the vice-presidency as President Barack Obama’s running-mate.

Beau Biden briefly considered running for the US Senate to take the seat vacated when his father became Vice-President after the 2008 election, but he ultimately decided to continue working as Delaware’s attorney-general.

Mr Obama paid homage, praising Beau Biden’s commitment to his family. “Like his dad, 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,” Mr Obama said.

“But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder, nothing made him happier, nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family. Just like his dad.”

The death marks another deva­stating loss for Joe Biden, whose first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident as they were going Christmas shopping in 1972. Beau and his younger brother, Hunter, survived.

According to The New York Times, Beau Biden suffered a mild stroke in 2010. He received treatment and had a small lesion removed from his brain in 2013.

As recently as this year, some Delaware politicians thought Beau Biden would run for governor next year. But his health ­declined in recent weeks and he was sent to Walter Reed on May 20.

Tributes poured in after news of the death broke.

“My heart is broken for the family of Beau Biden — a wonderful man who served his country with devotion and lived his life with courage,” Hillary Clinton wrote on Twitter.

Jeb Bush, the likely 2016 Repub­lican presidential candidate, tweeted: “Saddened by the news of Beau Biden’s passing. My prayers are with the Vice-Pres­ident, Dr Biden, and the whole family.”

AFP