Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who was elected after her husband was killed and son wounded in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre, announced Wednesday she would not seek a 10th term.

“I always worried about who will speak for the victims,” McCarthy told the AP in a phone interview from her Mineola home. “But so many colleagues have started speaking up and are taking an active role that I don’t have to be the only face to talk about gun violence.”

McCarthy, who turned 70 on Sunday, said she is recovering well after being diagnosed last year with lung cancer.

She has made few public appearances in recent months as she has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments, which she described as “waning.”

A lifelong smoker, McCarthy has sued dozens of asbestos manufacturers, claiming she may have been exposed to the material as a young woman.