Former president Jimmy Carter enters home hospice care

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. [AP photo]

The Carter Center said Saturday that former President Jimmy Carter has entered home hospice care.

The charity created by the 98-year-old former president said on Twitter that after a series of short hospital stays, Carter "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention."

It said he has the full support of his medical team and family, which "asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers."

Carter, a Democrat, became the 39th U.S. president when he defeated former President Gerald R. Ford in 1976. He served a single term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

In recent years the Georgia native suffered from a series of health issues including an aggressive form of melanoma that spread to his liver and brain, although he had responded well to the treatment he received.

In August 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. The following year, Carter announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any signs of cancer.

Carter celebrated his most recent birthday in October with family and friends in Plains, the tiny Georgia town where he and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in the years between World War I and the Great Depression.

The Carter Center, which the 39th president and the former first lady established after their one White House term, last year marked 40 years of promoting democracy and conflict resolution, monitoring elections, and advancing public health in the developing world.

James Earl Carter Jr. won the 1976 presidential election after beginning the campaign as a little-known, one-term Georgia governor.

His surprise performance in the Iowa caucuses established the small, Midwestern state as an epicenter of presidential politics.

Carter went on to defeat Ford in the general election, largely on the strength of sweeping the South before his native region shifted heavily to Republicans.