For decades, Alex Trebek has delivered answers on Jeopardy! Now, the game show host is delivering some difficult news: He’s resuming chemotherapy.
Trebek has been battling pancreatic cancer for much of this year, first announcing his diagnosis in March. But while he was said to be on the up-and-up in recent weeks, the numbers aren’t looking good for the Jeopardy! host, Trebek admitted during a recent interview on Good Morning America (GMA).
“I was doing so well”
“I was doing so well,” Trebek told ABC’s T.J. Holmes. “And my numbers went down to the equivalent of a normal human being who does not have pancreatic cancer. So we were all very optimistic. And they said, ‘Good, we’re gonna stop chemo, we’ll start you on immunotherapy.'”
That’s when things started to go downhill.
“I lost about 12 pounds in a week,” Trebek said. “And my numbers went sky high, much higher than they were when I was first diagnosed. So, the doctors have decided that I have to undergo chemo again and that’s what I’m doing.”
Trebek took a hiatus from Jeopardy! following his diagnosis earlier this year, but he returned to the show last month, according to MSN. On GMA, the 79-year-old described how the disease has taken its toll on him.
“When it happened early on I was down on myself. I didn’t realize how fallible each of us is in his or her own way,” Trebek said. “I talk to the audience sometimes and I get teary-eyed for no reason. I don’t even bother to explain it anymore, I just experience it. I know it’s a part of who I am and I just keep going.”
Trebek went on to mention the “excruciating pain” and “fatigue” that he struggled with following his diagnosis, along with the “surge of sadness” and “depression” that he sometimes feels. “Cancer,” he remarked, “is mysterious in more ways than one.”
“There is an end in sight for me”
But it doesn’t seem that Trebek is scared of the end of his life — however far or near that may be.
“I realize that there is an end in sight for me, just as there is for everyone else. One line that I have used with our staff in recent weeks and months is that when I do pass on, one thing they will not say at my funeral is, ‘Oh, he was taken from us too soon,'” he said. “I’ve had one hell of a good life… The thought of passing on doesn’t frighten me, it doesn’t.”
Originally from Canada, Trebek moved to the U.S. in 1973, according to Forbes. and began hosting Jeopardy! in 1984. He has also made appearances on other shows, including an April Fool’s episode of Wheel of Fortune.
Despite his health struggles, Trebek is adamant that he’ll continue hosting. “As long as I can walk out and greet the audience and the contestants and run the game,” Trebek said, “I’m happy.”
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