Beloved game show host Alex Trebek is beginning to regret going public with his cancer battle because he’s uncomfortable with his position as the celebrity poster boy for the disease.
The Jeopardy! star is set to undergo another round of chemotherapy as his pancreatic cancer has taken a turn for the worse, and he insists he has to focus on his own health and not worry about being a role model to others.
“I have become in many ways the spokesperson for pancreatic cancer,” he tells CTV News W5, “and it’s tough sometimes being as optimistic as you can, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough or intelligent enough to help alleviate some of that despair.”
The 79-year-old, who returned as the U.S. TV game show’s host last month (Sep 2019) after an earlier round of treatment, announced he had stage four pancreatic cancer in March.
He admits he suffers pain and depression, but Jeopardy! has helped him through the worst of his cancer battle: “I can be sitting in my dressing room and when I get up I’m not able to move, but all of a sudden when (announcer) Johnny says, ‘And now here’s the host of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek’, ‘OK, let’s go!'”
The Canadian has hosted over 8,000 episodes of the hit game show, and he assures fans he’ll keep going until he knows it’s time to step down.
“I will keep doing it as long as my skills do not diminish and they have started to diminish,” he adds, explaining he has started slurring his words and the chemo has caused sores in his mouth.
