Former US president and Nobel peace laureate Jimmy Carter who has been diagnosed with cancer in his brain, says he still hopes to make a scheduled trip to Nepal.  

Speaking to reporters in the United States, on Thursday, 90-year-old Carter said he wished to come to Chitwan and complete his project, Habitat for Humanity, a charity in which he has been deeply involved. “I really wanted to go to Nepal to build houses,” he told reporters at a press conference in Atlanta. 

According to Habit for Humanity’s website they will be carrying out the project in Chitwan’s Ratnagar municipality, which is near Bharatpur.  The project will work with 100 dalit families, who are currently living in grass and thatch huts. They will be replacing these simple huts with permanent housing.

"I would still hope to go (to Nepal). It would require an airplane flight from Kathmandu to the Chitwan area... And if I do that, I understand from my schedule that it would require a five-week postponement of my last treatment. So that's what I'm going to have to consider," said Carter, adding that, “but if I don't go, the rest of my family will probably go to take my place,"

                         Former President Jimmy Carter, right, discusses his cancer diagnosis during a press conference at The Carter Center in Atlanta on Thursday, Aug. 20. Photo: AP

Carter’s melanoma, a form of skin cancer, has been discovered in four places on his brain and is likely to “show up other places in my body”, the former US president said. 

The 39th president of The United States, Carter went on to establish the Carter Center and has travelled the world as a peace broker and human rights advocate.  Carter had arrived here in Kathmandu in Nov. 2013, for a week-long visit to observe Nepal’s Constituent Assembly. 

Mr Carter was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.