'Jeopardy!' star James Holzhauer gives to cancer research in honor of Alex Trebek
James Holzhauer may not be on "Jeopardy!" anymore, but host Alex Trebek, who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, is still on his mind.
The 32-time "Jeopardy!" champ donated more than $1,000 to pancreatic cancer research in Trebek's name.
Holzhauer gave $1,109.14 (his daughter's birthday is Nov. 9, 2014) to a Chicago-area woman's fundraiser and wrote on the donation website, "For Alex Trebek and all the other survivors.”
"I sent him an email saying that it's been interesting to see paths cross in my life and I feel like it's time for our paths to cross," Ann Zediker, who lives in the same suburb as Holzhauer, told ABC station WLS in Chicago. "I told him that Trebek's diagnosis rocked the world, and my heart sank to hear about how pancreatic cancer hit another beautiful soul and family. I shared with him how I lost my father from pancreatic cancer."
Holzhauer won more than $2.4 million before his weeks-long reign on "Jeopardy!" ended June 3. During that episode, which was filmed shortly after Trebek learned of his diagnosis, the game show host thanked Holzhauer's daughter for a get well card that she made for him.
More recently, Trebek said that his treatment has been going well and that he is "near remission."
"It's kind of mind-boggling," Trebek told People. "The doctors said they hadn't seen this kind of positive result in their memory."
