Like millions of cancer patients, Alex Trebek is trying to get back to work after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Olivia Newton-John, actress, singer, and three time cancer survivor, offered her words of support to the Jeopardy! host.
“I sent him a message saying, ‘I know you can get through this,” Newton-John told Entertainment Tonight about her correspondence with Trebek. “Don’t listen to stage four and all of (that),” she said. “Don’t read the statistics and stay focused and see how you can heal yourself.”
Read MoreAnd having been through it, she’s got some advice for people who have just been diagnosed: “I would say take a deep breath and as you’re going through this, be really gentle on yourself, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
For Ramy Gafni, his dad’s supportive words made a huge difference after his diagnosis. “My dad is a very, sort of, meat and potatoes tough guy, and he said something to me when I was first diagnosed and we were talking about it, kind of taking it in like, okay I have cancer. And my dad said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not so easy to die.'”
Ramy says his mom was his inspiration for how to get through cancer and move on, having survived it three times. “My mom has had cancer three times and she’s still with us, happily. She had hodgkin’s disease when I was nine years old, and here I was at thirty one with non hodgkin’s, so she was my role model. I was like, well, she got rid of it, got on with her life, and I’m gonna do the same.”
But support can also come from the places you least expect it. When Mary Elizabeth Williams was diagnosed with cancer, she and her husband has recently separated. “I guess there’s never an optimum time to find out you have a malignancy, but my husband and I had actually been separated for two years, and we had only recently reconciled. So when this diagnosis came down, we had just gotten out of a really, really tumultuous time for both of us and for our children as well. And then this happened.”
But the family came back together to support each other during this difficult time. “And a painful and as awful and crappy as it all was, I am so glad that we all wen through that first, because I know we all chose to be there for each other.”
Olivia Newton-John’s comments were characteristic of attitude toward cancer, which she’s spoken about in an interview with The Today Show. "I kinda consider I've had a gift of extra time. I've lost people younger than me," Newton-John said at the time. "So I'm very grateful. I'm 70 and I've had the most amazing life, and I have extra time. So, whatever that is, I'm grateful for it, and I'll just enjoy every day, and that's all you can do.”
She calls the process of deciding to stay positive through cancer “winning over.” “I think what you think creates your reality,” she said int he interview. “So that's a decision, you have to make that decision. You know you can be a victim, or you can be a winner and enjoy your life. It hasn't been easy, of course.”
Trebek announced his diagnosis in a youtube address, in an effort to be “open and transparent,” with his viewers. “Normally the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working,” he said. “And with the love and support from my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease,” he said. “Truth told, I have to. Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy for three more years.”
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