Jeopardy champ James Holzhauer donated part of his winnings to a cancer walk for Alex Trebek

By Gwen Ihnat  |  June 20, 2019 | 4:35pm
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Jeopardy champ James Holzhauer donated part of his winnings to a cancer walk for Alex Trebek
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Trebek poses with Holzhauer backstage at the 2019 NHL Awards last night in Las Vegas Photo: Eliot J. Schechter

On the final episode of James Holzhauer’s long run on Jeopardy, Alex Trebek thanked the champ for a get-well card from his daughter, in response to the host’s battle with pancreatic cancer: “I want to express my thanks to your beautiful little daughter, Natasha, for having made this get-well card for me… That was very sweet of her.” CNN reports that the exchange caught the attention of Ann Zedikera in Naperville, Illinois, where Holzhauer once lived. She contact him to see if would attend this summer’s Naperville Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk, an event she was fundraising for, telling CNN, “At the end of the day, I had nothing to lose… My heart told me it was the right thing to do.”

Holzhauer wrote back declining to attend the walk, but sending a check for $1,109.14 with the message, “For Alex Trebek and all the other survivors.” The check’s amount references Holzhauer’s daughter’s birthday. Last month, Trebek announced that his cancer was in “near remission,” despite his initial stage 4 diagnosis.

The champ and the host also had a reunion this week: Trebek presented at the NHL show in Las Vegas, in one of his first public appearances since his diagnosis, and Holzhauer joined him at the event. Holzhauer said that Trebek promised that “he’d be there whenever Jeopardy welcomes me back” and also regretted the alarming huge-hands camera angle.

 
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