Alex Trebek’s Widow Launches Stand Up To Cancer Fund in His Honor

Alex Trebek’s widow, Jean Trebek, is commemorating the third anniversary of his loss of life by launching a Stand Up To Most cancers fund in his honor.

“He was very grateful. He was a person that moved by way of life with gratitude,” Jean, 60, mentioned of her late husband in a video saying The Alex Trebek Fund posted on Tuesday, October 31. The fund — which launched in time for November’s Pancreatic Most cancers Consciousness Month — will assist help pancreatic most cancers analysis and consciousness.

“When Alex was identified, we had by no means thought in one million years it was stage IV pancreatic most cancers,” Jean continued. “I believed it could be an amazing concept to arrange this fund at Stand Up To Most cancers. And since he was all about the fitting reply, I feel it’s very becoming that this fund is now established in his identify, and hopefully it can profit 1000’s and 1000’s of individuals.”

Alex died on the age of 80 on November 8, 2020, one yr after he introduced his analysis with stage IV pancreatic most cancers in March 2019. On the time of his analysis, the Jeopardy! host mentioned he deliberate to “beat the low survival statistics for this illness.”

Jean broke her silence on her husband’s loss of life days later by way of Instagram. “My household and I sincerely thanks all in your compassionate messages and generosity,” she wrote alongside a photograph from their 1990 marriage ceremony. “Your expressions have actually touched our hearts. Thanks so very, very a lot.” The 2 shared two children, son Matthew, 33, and daughter Emily, 30. (Alex additionally shared his daughter Nicky together with his ex-wife, Elaine Callei Trebek.)

Throughout an look on Right now on Wednesday, Jean famous that the fund is one thing Alex “really would champion,” including, “He liked problem. He was very curious. He liked to know the solutions, each at Jeopardy! and at residence. And I feel this actually coincides together with his character, his spirit of serving to others and discovering the fitting solutions.”

The fund was arrange partly with Stand Up To Most cancers cofounder Katie Couric. On Right now, she informed host Savannah Guthrie that she and Jean turned buddies after she provided her help to her following Alex’s loss of life. “We began speaking about Alex’s legacy and the way we might honor him, and that’s when the thought of this fund happened,” Couric, 66, shared.

Jean beforehand opened as much as Guthrie, 51, about experiencing “waves of grief” after Alex died within the April 2021 NBC Information particular Inspiring America: The 2021 Inspiration Checklist. “I feel one of many lovely issues, the blessings that got here, if you happen to can name it a blessing, was that [Alex] acquired to actually see the outpouring of affection and admiration that he gave to the world,” Jean said. “And I do know that that was in and of itself an enormous inspiration for Alex.”

Later that yr, Alex’s Jeopardy! host successors Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings honored the TV character on the primary anniversary of his loss of life. “Remembering the passing of the good Alex Trebek a yr in the past at the moment,” Bialik, 47, tweeted in November 2021. “Alex was a legendary entertainer, philanthropist, and lover of life. We miss you, Alex.”

Jennings, 49, for his half, said that he missed Alex “loads” in a heartfelt video message shared by way of the sport present’s X (previously Twitter) web page. “Alex’s spouse Jean had given me a pair of his cufflinks that he had worn on the present. She thought of Jeopardy! and she or he thought of me, an individual she had by no means met,” he revealed. “My Alex Trebek cufflinks are the one cufflinks I personal. They’re sort of luck allure for me right here.”