Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave University at Buffalo law students a memorable start to the new academic year Monday when she accepted an honorary degree on campus and talked about her dedication to equal rights and the “Notorious R.B.G” nickname.

The 86-year-old justice recently completed radiation therapy for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas, but said she did not want her health problems to stop her from fulfilling a commitment she made last year to a fellow Cornell University alumni and lawyer, Wayne Wisbaum, who has since died.

“I didn’t know this day would be preceded by three weeks of daily radiation,” Ginsburg said later during an event for the area legal community, “but I said ‘I will not cancel Buffalo’.”

The Supreme Court announced Friday that Ginsburg underwent outpatient radiation therapy beginning August 5. It said there is no evidence of the disease remaining.

Before a capacity crowd of about 1,700 at UB’s Center for the Arts, the court’s oldest member mused over her celebrity status, evident in “Saturday Night Live” parodies, T-shirts bearing her image, a CNN documentary and the movie, “On the Basis of Sex.”

“It was beyond my wildest expectation that I would one day become the notorious R.B.G,” the justice said to applause and cheers while accepting an honorary law degree.

She called her contributions to gender equality “exhilarating.”

“The progress I have seen in my lifetime makes me optimistic for the future,” Ginsburg told the audience of mostly students and faculty. “Our communities, nation and world will be increasingly improved as women achieve their rightful place in all fields.”

Final year law student Abisha Vijayashanthar said she came away inspired.

“Are you kidding me? She’s a woman, a legend, the Notorious R.B.G.,” Vijayashanthar said. “I think she gives us hope and that’s exactly what we need today.”

Health conditions

As the oldest justice, she is closely watched for any signs of deteriorating health. The court is currently in recess until October.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat. According to the website of the Columbia Pancreas Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, the percentage of people still alive five years after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer that has not spread beyond the pancreas is 27.1 percent.

Ginsburg, appointed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton, had two cancerous nodules in her left lung removed last December. She was previously treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Ginsburg also broke three ribs in a fall last November. The nodules on her lung were found as part of the tests the justice underwent after that fall.

In January, she missed oral arguments in cases for the first time in her lengthy career on the court. She returned to the bench in February and was an active participant in the remaining oral arguments of the court term, which ended in June.

If Ginsburg, one of the nine-member court’s four liberal justices, were unable to continue serving, Republican President Donald Trump could replace her with a conservative, further shifting the court to the right. Trump has added two justices since becoming president in January 2017, cementing its 5-4 conservative majority.

(With input from Reuters and AP)