It’s been a year since Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek announced his stage-four pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
And, having beat the unfavorable odds (a first-year survival rate of 18 percent), the ever-optimistic TV personality is celebrating with fans.
In a short video published to YouTube this week, the 79-year-old admitted the last 12 months haven’t always been easy.
“There were some good days, but a lot of not-so-good days,” he said. “I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will.”
In September, Trebek revealed that, despite making good progress, he had to undergo another round of chemotherapy due to “curves and unexpected events” in treatment.
“There were moments of great pain; days when certain bodily functions no longer functions,” he said. “And sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on.”
It’s hard to hear such words from the perky presenter.
But, in true Trebek style, he brushed those feelings aside and focused instead on the support of his wife, other cancer patients, and his hordes of fans.
Following an initial outpouring of encouragement from folks like Pat Sajak and contestants Ken Jennings and Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, Trebek’s disease took a backseat to Jeopardy!, which he’s continued hosting well into his 35th year.
So it came as a bit of a shock when Tournament of Champions contestant Dhruv Gaur chose to honor the emcee with a costly message.
Instead of attempting to solve the Final Jeopardy puzzle late last year, Gaur wrote “We [love] you, Alex!”
Trebek read the answer as usual, barely pausing to swallow the lump in his throat.”
“That’s very kind of you, thank you,” he said, taking a breath. “Cost you $1,995. You’re left with five bucks. OK.”
Even his oncologist is keen to keep the presenter around.
“He said, ‘Alex, even though the two-year survival rate is only 7 percent,’ he was certain that one year from now, the two of us would be sitting in his office, celebrating my second anniversary of survival.”
Fingers crossed.
Trebek ended his health update with a message of hope: one that everybody—cancer patient or not—can learn from.
“If I… No, if we—because so many of us are involved in this same situation—if we take it just one day at a time, with a positive attitude, anything is possible.”
Pancreatic cancer—the fourth most common cause of death in the US due to cancer—emerges when cells in the digestive organ begin to grow out of control.
There are several types of the disease, involving the endocrine and exocrine tissue. It’s still unclear from which sort Trebek suffers.
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