Alex Trebek Gets Standing Ovation From Pancreatic Cancer Survivors After His Beautiful Speech

Aug 05, 2019 by apost team

Back in May, Alex Trebek, well-known host Jeopardy!, met with pancreatic cancer survivors, volunteers and other supporters for a fundraising event organized by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) in Los Angeles. His emotional speech was absolutely gripping.

The 78-year-old game show host has been fighting his own battle against stage four pancreatic cancer for some time now. He has proclaimed that he will not become part of a statistic - a grim fate of many people facing this type of cancer.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst life expectancies of all major cancers. Untreated, the average survival time of someone suffering from the advanced form is roughly 3 1/2 months. With treatment, this expectancy rises to roughly 8 months.

Stage four pancreatic cancer, in particular, has a 5-year survival chance of 3%.

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Despite this sad prognosis, or maybe because of it, Trebek stays almost remarkably positive. During the speech, he proclaimed: 

“As you all know, survivorship is measured starting by the date you are diagnosed with cancer. And on that scale, my gosh, I’m a 62-day survivor. I promise you this, if I become a 22-year survivor, you will all be welcome at my 100th birthday.”

The host revealed his cancer diagnosis via a YouTube video message, stating that he wanted his fans to get the news straight from him instead of any news outlets. Even during this message, he stayed upbeat, saying that he would simply have to beat the odds because he had already been contracted for another three years of "Jeopardy!" Only a few days later, he took the time to thank everybody who responded with well-wishes in another short video.

It just seems as if nothing can slow Alex Trebek down. After finishing the Jeopardy! season despite his diagnosis and ongoing treatment, he stated in a Twitter video that production of the 36th season would start as usual. Meanwhile, during Jeopardy!'s summer break, the host took part in the L.A. fundraiser to raise awareness and money to combat this cancer.

He was joined by nearly 200 staff members of his show and Wheel of Fortune, as well as many other volunteers and cancer survivors. #TeamAlex set out to raise $35,000 but ended up with almost double that - $60,000! During the event, he gave his rousing speech that will surely be remembered for a long time by those who were there.

You can watch an excerpt of it here:

Is anybody from your family or circle of friends fighting against cancer? Do you know a cancer survivor? Send them Alex's moving words to remind them that there is hope and to never stop fighting!