Jeopardy! host and Sudbury native says severe stomach pains alerted him something was wrong

Beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, 79, who is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, said this week support from fans is helping him deal with his health crisis, even as he nears the end of his life.

“People all over America and abroad have decided they want to let me know now, while I’m alive, about the impact that I’ve been having on their existence,” the Sudbury-born Trebek told ABC News.“They have come out and they have told me, and my gosh, it makes me feel so good.”

Contestants on the show have expressed their feelings this season, too. In November, one of them, who didn't know the answer to the final Jeopardy! question, wrote instead, 'What is: We love you, Alex!'

“I read it first and then I got choked up because it suddenly registered on me ‘Oh, dear. OK. Yeah,’” Trebek told ABC. “I don’t mind getting choked up. My oncologist told me one of the symptoms, if you will, of pancreatic cancer is that you get these moments of depression, sadness.”

He announced he had pancreatic cancer in March, and despite the bleak outlook for that type of cancer, was in remission by the time Jeopardy! started recording new episodes in the summer.

But the cancer came back, Trebek revealed in September, and a new round of chemotherapy followed. He was first alerted that something was wrong early in 2019 when he suffered severe stomach pains.

“I knew as soon as the doctor came back and mentioned the pancreas. I said, ‘Uh-oh, it’s going to be cancer,” Trebek said. “Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible … survival rates of pancreatic cancer.”

He knows the end is getting closer, he said, and has thoughts about his final show as the host of the popular game show.

“It’ll be a significant moment for me,” he told ABC. “But I’ve kind of, in my mind, rehearsed it already, and what I would do on that day is tell the director, ‘Time the show down to leave me 30 seconds at the end. That’s all I want.’

“And I will say my goodbyes and I will tell people, ‘Don’t ask me who’s going to replace me because I have no say whatsoever. But I’m sure that if you give them the same love and attention and respect that you have shown me ... then they will be a success and the show will continue being a success. And until we meet again, God bless you and goodbye.”