Following his incredible 32-game winning streak, earning him an impressive pot of $2,462,216 in winnings, Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer has given back to the man who saw him achieve greatness in the best way possible.
According to CNN , Holzhauer has donated some of his earnings to a Chicago-based pancreatic cancer walk in Alex Trebek’s name, just months after the Jeopardy! host announced his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
Although it seemed like he could never lose, Holzhauer eventually faced defeat on the quiz show this month.
After winning 32 consecutive episodes, Las Vegas gambler Holzhauer’s impressive streak ended on June 3, earning him the title of the third-highest overall winner in the show’s history behind Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.
During his time on the show, Holzhauer and his wife were quietly donating some of his earnings to various charities.
The couple have been giving back to their own community in Las Vegas, reportedly donating thousands to such charities as Project 150, Ronald McDonald House, the Las Vegas Natrual History Museum, and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and Foundation.
They also donated $10,000 to an education charity, Communities in Schools of Nevada, which works to prevent students from dropping out of school.
In what turned out to be Holzhauer’s final episode on the show, Trebek talked about a homemade card he got from his daughter.
“I want to express my thanks to your beautiful little daughter, Natasha, for having made this get-well card for me,” Trebek said at the beginning of the show. “That was very sweet of her.”
In March, the 78-year-old host publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Since then, he has kept his fans updated on his treatment and condition.
One viewer who had become quite the fan of Holzhauer’s decided to reach out to him after watching the episode.
Ann Zediker is also a resident of the ‘Jeopardy’ champion’s former town, Naperville, where the 2019 Naperville Pancreatic Cancer Reach Walk is being held on July 14.
She invited Holzhauer to take part in the walk, telling CNN, “At the end of the day, I had nothing to lose. My heart told me it was the right thing to do.”
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Although Holzhauer was unable to physically participate in the event, he did send a donation.
He donated $1,109.14 to the walk, a peculiar number to anyone else, but a number quite special and near and dear to Holzhauer’s heart. Those digits represent his daughter, Natasha’s, birthday, the same daughter who wrote the card to Trebek.
“For Alex Trebek and all the other survivors,” Holzhauer wrote in his donation message.
Zednik, who lose her own father to pancreatic cancer in 2010, has praised Holzhauer for his donation.
“There was no expectation on my end,” she said. “I was just thrilled that he responded. I knew that Alex’s story had an impact on him, just like it has an impact on anyone who’s working with a family member who’s going through pancreatic cancer.”
In a brand new tweet, Holzhauer shared a sweet photo of him and Trebek at the NHL Awards.
Along with the photo in which the two are striking the same silly pose, Holzhauer wrote that while spending time together at the event, Trebek promised that he would be there whenever the champion returned to the Jeopardy! stage.
Trebek has recently given his fans a positive update on his cancer prognosis.
At the end of May, two months after first being diagnosed with the disease, he revealed that he is in “near remission” and has been responding well to chemotherapy.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” Trebek said. “The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory.”
He added, “Some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.”
Although he revealed he was overjoyed at the news, Trebek said he’s not going to get ahead of himself.
He still has multiple rounds of chemotherapy left to undergo. In recent interviews, he has spoken about the emotional toll such treatments can have on a person.
“Chemo affects people in different ways, and people have to understand that,” he said in his first televised interview since his diagnosis. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘Hey, I’m really depressed today and have no idea why. Why am I crying today?'”
h/t: CNN
