The legendary host of Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek, has had a very public battle with cancer, which moved him to share with The New York Times how he plans to cope with the illness.
Trebek was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in March 2019. He received some optimistic reports from his physicians, but over time his diagnosis worsened. Now, as he inches towards his 80th birthday, Trebek is more focused on up-keeping his quality of life and making a smooth transition than going through agonizing chemotherapy treatments. As a result, he revealed to the Times that he plans on quitting chemotherapy if this latest round is unsuccessful.
"Yesterday morning my wife came to me and said, ‘How are you feeling?’ And I said, ‘I feel like I want to die.’ It was that bad," he recalled. "There comes a time where you have to make a decision as to whether you want to continue with such a low quality of life, or whether you want to just ease yourself into the next level. It doesn’t bother me in the least."
Although he may be walking away from treatment, Trebek is still committed to Jeopardy! He says that he'll keep hosting the program, but he understands that Jeopardy! is built on "quality." If his condition makes it so where he's unable to fulfill the viewers' needs,then he will humbly walk away from the game show.
"It's a quality program, and I think I do a good job hosting it," Trebek said. "And when I start slipping, I'll stop hosting."
