Teen 'Jeopardy!' champ donates $10K to cancer research in Alex Trebek's honor
The category is: Cancer research, for $10,000.
November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and Avi Gupta, a teen "Jeopardy!" champ who took home $100,000 over the summer, has donated part of his earnings to cancer research in honor of "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, who revealed his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis back in March.
Gupta, 18, announced in a video posted to Twitter that he donated more than $10,000 for pancreatic cancer studies at the Knight Cancer Institute in Oregon, which will also go towards promoting early detection of pancreatic cancer -- something Trebek himself advocated for in an October PSA.
"It was a dream come true earlier this year to finally join [Alex] on the 'Jeopardy!' stage in the 'Jeopardy!' teen tournament," Gupta began. "And I'm honored to be able to make this donation to the Knight Cancer Institute to support him and the millions of other people suffering from pancreatic cancer across the world."
"Our goal with this campaign," he continued, "is to support research into pancreatic cancer awareness and early detection, and we hope you'll join us in contributing."
Trebek resumed chemotherapy treatments in September, and told "Good Morning America" at the time that he has no plans to stop hosting "Jeopardy!"
"As long as I can walk out and greet the audience and the contestants and run the game, I'm happy," he said.
Nov. 21 has been designated as World Pancreatic Cancer Day.
