It’s the most popular game show in America and has been for the last three decades. You know the show.
A giant blue board has a series of different categories allocated under different amounts of money where contestants are given “answers” and the answer is “the question” and you have to be specific about asking it as a question or you won’t be awarded the points.
And the show blew up recently because “Jeopardy James” Holzhauer took America by storm shattering all kinds of records. However, he recently lost but he just did one of the most extraordinary things for host Alex Trebek.
It was one of the saddest things to learn Alex Trebek was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer earlier this year.
He spoke candidly to a LIVE audience in the background saying, “I have some news to share with all of you, and it’s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy fan base. I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. So therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information. Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.”
But thankfully, after several rounds of chemotherapy, Trebek was happy to report that his cancer had shrank by fifty percent signifying that he was near remission.
Speaking to “People,” Trebek said, “It’s kind of mind-boggling. The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory… some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.”
The “Jeopardy!” host admitted he cried “happy tears” upon hearing the news even though the pancreatic cancer didn’t seem to affect his duties as a game show host. But he did say on “Good Morning America” that the pain and depression as a result of the chemo was almost too much to handle.
Recently, the man nicknamed Jeopardy James” shattered records in many different ways and quickly became one of the best contestants the game show ever had coming just shy of approximately $51,000 of overtaking the all-time money earner on the show, which is still held by Ken Jennings in 2004.
And with a part of his money, he donated a portion of his winnings to the Naperville Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk on behalf of Alex Trebek writing, “For Alex Trebek and all the other survivors.”
He donated precisely $1,109.14 which carries a significant meaning to “Jeopardy James” because his daughter’s birthday is November 9th, 2014.
The campaign page was of Ann Zediker, a native of Naperville, Illinois whose father died of pancreatic cancer in 2010 and she told USA Today “My gut told me to reach out to James and invite him to a walk we’re having. Many people told me it was a horrible to idea. My answer was I have absolutely nothing to lose. I’ve always felt that you really need to take the chances that are given to you and make the most of the opportunities that are given to you.”
Alex Trebek is probably beyond grateful and honored for that kind gesture.