Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer died Thursday evening after fighting a losing battle with cancer. He was 68 years old.

The cause of death was cancer of the small intestine, according to the conservative icon’s son, Daniel Krauthammer. He did not provide further information. Charles Krauthammer wrote a touching farewell note in The Washington Post notifying readers of his column about the serious nature of his condition.

“I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months,” he wrote in the June 8 post. “I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me.”

“Recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned,” Krauthammer added. “There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over.”

He spent most of his life confined to a wheelchair, the result of an unfortunate accident that happened after he decided to go for a quick swim with a friend before a planned game of tennis at Harvard University. (RELATED: Charles Krauthammer Says He Has Just Weeks To Live Due To Return Of Cancer)

“We go for a swim, we take a few dives and I hit my head on the bottom of the pool,” he said in 2013 Fox News interview about the injury that took away the use of his lower torso. “The amazing thing is there was not even a cut on my head. It just hit at precisely the angle where all the force was transmitted to one spot … the cervical vertebrae which severed the spinal cord.”

Krauthammer was born in New York in 1950. His wife, Robyn Krauthammer, and son, Daniel, survive him.

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