According to a statement on the de Klerk Foundation’s website, the former South African president and Nobel Prize winner has been diagnosed with mesothelioma – a cancer that affects the tissue that lines the lungs --- File --- Former South African president Frederik de Klerk and his wife Marike Willemse seen at 'solidarnosc' conference marking the 25th anniversary of Lech Walesa Nobel Prize, in Gdansk, Poland on December 6, 2008. Photo by Ammar Abd Rabbo/ABACAPRESS.COM