Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek celebrated his 79th birthday with his family and friends on Monday.
The official Jeopardy! Instagram account shared photos from Trebek’s 79th birthday bash.
The Jeopardy! host posed with friends, family and lots of balloons.
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The Instagram account encouraged fans to share their birthday wishes with Trebek in the comments section below the photos.
“Alex!! You are an institution! I’ve been watching you host Jeopardy since I was a toddler. Many happy returns, thank you for enriching all of our lives,” one user wrote.
“Happy Birthday to you, Alex! Praying for your continued healing in the coming year,” another user wrote, referencing his ongoing battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“Happy birthday to the best game show host in the whole wide world! We love you so much! 🎉🎉,” another Jeopardy! fan wrote.
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Trebek also celebrated in the most Jeopardy! way possible by posing with a cake, which read, “Who is 79?,” pointing to himself.
In early March, Trebek disclosed that he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, an illness with a grim prognosis and an approximately nine per cent survival rate.
In May, he said his doctors told him he’s in “near remission” and has been responding very well to chemotherapy.
WATCH BELOW: Alex Trebek’s doctors say he is in “near remission” after cancer diagnosis
“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” said Trebek. “The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory… some of the tumours have already shrunk by more than 50 per cent.”
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The jovial host said that while he’s overjoyed at his progress — he shed “tears of joy” when he found out the good news — he’s not getting ahead of himself. He still has multiple rounds of chemotherapy to endure.
In early May, during his first televised interview following his diagnosis, he explained that he’s been feeling a lot of different emotions that he’s not used to experiencing.
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“Chemo affects people in different ways, and people have to understand that,” he said during the interview. “There’s nothing wrong with saying: ‘Hey, I’m really depressed today and have no idea why. Why am I crying today?’”
He credits his fans and well-wishers around the world for his remarkable improvement.
“I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers,” he said. “I told the doctors this has to be more than just the chemo, and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this. I’ve got a lot of love out there headed in my direction and a lot of prayer and I will never, ever minimize the value of that.”
READ MORE: Alex Trebek hopeful he has completed chemo treatment
Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate from 2008 to 2014 was 8.5 per cent. Stage 4 is the most advanced form of the disease.
In Canada, an estimated 5,500 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 4,800 died from it in 2017, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Trebek has hosted Jeopardy! since 1984, winning five Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host. He was born in Sudbury, Ont., and attended the University of Ottawa.
—With files from Chris Jancelewicz
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