After being diagnosed with advanced skin cancer, former President Jimmy Carter thought he had just a few weeks to live.

At Monday's opening of an annual Habitat for Humanity work project he and his wife Rosalynn sponsor, Carter said he put on a "a false, optimistic face" for months after he received the cancer diagnosis a little over a year ago, NBC News reported.

He was told he had melanoma skin cancer that had spread to his brain.

At the event in Memphis, Tenn, the 92-year-old Carter said he feels "pretty certain about my cure" but added that doctors are still "keeping an eye on me," NBC News reported.

Carter was treated with a new drug called Keytruda and announced late last year that scans showed he was free of cancer.