When former Jeopardy! champ and cancer survivor, Christine Whelchel, lost her hair to chemotherapy, she didn’t think it would ever grow back.
But after fighting through a tough recovery journey, this strong contestant is now sharing what normal cancer recovery looks like to help others find their voices.
When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer last year Christine Whelchel revealed that it didn’t phase her one bit.
The piano teacher and church organist from Spring Hill, Tennessee, took on Ken Jennings’ Jeopardy! game show to challenge herself while overcoming health battles.
But after a few days on the show, the four-day score leader has bravely taken her wig off for good.
Four-day Jeopardy! score leader Christine Whelchel embracing her do (Credit: Jeopardy! Twitter)
Show host Ken Jennings noted her appearance change during the “Meet the Contestants” portion.
Whelchel revealed, “I decided I didn’t need to hide behind the wig anymore,” and that she wanted to “to normalize what going through cancer recovery really looks like.”
Whelchel explained that her winnings gave her the confidence to not hide behind her wig and remove it, destigmatizing what cancer actually looks like.
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Her journey with Jeopardy! has been in sync with her cancer journey. Christine was diagnosed with breast cancer last March 2021.
And one of the first things she did after being diagnosed was to take the Jeopardy! test. She even did her audition just the night before her surgery in May 2021.
The audition went well, and so did her surgery. Whelchel is now in remission and cancer-free.
Christine Whelchel wearing her wig on set for Jeopardy! (Credit: Jeopardy! on Twitter)
Although she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, it has not stopped her from fighting hard each day despite all the odds.
The four-day champion has made a strong statement for recovering cancer patients and has been an inspiration to others while making game show history with her winning streak. Whelchel has walked away with $73,000 in total earnings with a four-day run!
Last week the show ended with a surprising tie-breaker between two-day champion Henry Rozycki. (Clue: “A 1949 review noted the ‘wrong formulas for success’ of this character and ‘fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things'”; Answer: “Who is Willy Loman?”)
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They settled the tiebreaker with a new clue. The category was flowers, and the clue by Jennings read: “After its inclusion in a 1915 poem, this red flower became a symbol of fallen World War I Soldiers.’ “. Whelchel answered, “What is ‘poppy’?” which kickstarted her Jeopardy! winning streak.
When being interviewed by Jeopardy! Clue Crew member Jimmy McGuire, he asked Whelchel what she wanted fans of the show to know about her.
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Christine shared the heartfelt message—”My biggest thing is, just keep going for your dreams,” she said, “Don’t let age, or cancer, or your life circumstances, or anything limit you. And just go ahead and just say that you can go for something” inspiring fans of Whelchel to be as brave.