Longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek gave a heart-wrenching one-year status update on his stage four pancreatic cancer diagnosis Wednesday, opening up about the “massive attacks of depression” that made him “wonder if it was really worth fighting on.”
“I’d be lying if I said the journey has been an easy one,” Trebek said in a video posted to the official “Jeopardy!” Twitter account. “There were some good days, but a lot of not-so-good days. I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain,” he said.
But the beloved television personality reminded viewers why it’s important to keep a positive attitude and not give up hope.
“I brushed that aside quickly, because that would have been a massive betrayal — a betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean, who has given her all to help me survive. It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients who looked to me as a cheerleader of sorts, of the value of living and hope. And it would certainly have been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf,” he continued.
“My oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day. He said, ‘Alex, even though the 2-year survival rate is only 7%,’ he was certain that one year from now 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 situation — if we take it just one day at a time with a positive attitude, anything is possible.”
The host also listed the statistic that only 18% of stage four pancreatic cancer patients survive a full year after diagnosis.
“I am very happy to report I have just reached that marker,” he said.
Watch the video below.
A one-year update from Alex: pic.twitter.com/W9101suZeZ
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 4, 2020