Alex Trebek shares health update a year after cancer diagnosis: 'There were great moments of pain'
Nearly a year after announcing his battle with stage four pancreatic cancer, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has shared an update on his health and navigating life with the disease.
A one-year update from Alex: pic.twitter.com/W9101suZeZ
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 4, 2020
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"The one year survival rate for stage four pancreatic cancer patients is 18%," he says in a video posted to Twitter. "I'm very happy to report I have just reached that marker. Now I'd be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one. There were some good days but a lot of not so good days."
The Canadian-born TV host explained how he used comedy to help him cope with the diagnosis, admitting he told friends "the cancer won't kill me the chemo treatments will." He also opened up about the state of his mental health in the last year.
Carol Kaelson
"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," he said. "But I brushed that aside quickly, because that would've been a massive betrayal — a betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean, who has given her all to help me survive. It would've been a betrayal of other cancer patients who have looked to me as an inspiration, and a cheerleader of sorts, of the value of living and hope..."
Trebek is looking ahead to the two year mark, which his doctor says drops the survival rate to 7 percent.
"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."
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