Eric McCandless/ABC
Alex Trebek Details the ‘Pain’ and ‘Depression’ He Felt While Giving 1-Year Update on Cancer Battle
Beloved TV star Alex Trebek has some good news! The longtime Jeopardy! host gave fans an update about his ongoing stage IV battle with pancreatic cancer in a video shared to the game show’s official Twitter page on Wednesday, March 4.
“Hi everyone, if you’d got a minute, I’d like to give an update on my health situation,” the 79-year-old announced from the set of Jeopardy!. “The one-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients is 18 percent. I’m very happy to report I just reached that mark.”
A one-year update from Alex: pic.twitter.com/W9101suZeZ
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 4, 2020
The iconic game show host — who first revealed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in March 2019 — reached the important milestone following a long year of trials and tribulations.
“Now, I’d be lying if I said the journey was an easy one,” he confessed. “There were some good days, but a lot of not so good days. I joked with a lot of friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain, days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it was really worth fighting on.”
Despite the heartbreaking year, the Canadian-American TV personality made sure fans knew he was optimistic. “I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal,” he explained.
“A betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean, who has given her all to help me survive,” he sweetly continued. “It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients who have looked up to me as an inspiration and a cheerleader of sorts, of the value of living and hope. And it certainly would’ve been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.”
Though Alex has surpassed the one-year mark of his journey, he knows he still has a long road ahead of him. “My oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day,” the former Wizard of Odds host — who shares son Matthew, 30, and daughter Emily, 27, with his wife of over 30 years — recalled. “He said, Alex, even though the two-year survival rate is only 7 percent, he was certain the two of us would be sitting in his office celebrating my second anniversary of survival.”
“And you know something, if I — no, if we, because so many of us are involved in this same situation,” he stated, before continuing, “If we just take it one day at a time, with a positive attitude, anything is possible. I’ll keep you posted.”
Alex’s bittersweet update comes a few weeks after he was spotted out and about in mid-February. The handsome Hollywood star appeared to be in good spirits as he took the garbage outside his home in Los Angeles.
You got this, Alex!
