Sudbury arts group We Live Up Here sells Alex Trebek pins

A Sudbury, Ont. arts group is showing its support for Alex Trebek.

Last week, the game-show host announced he's been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. A 78-year-old, who is originally from Sudbury, had a positive tone.

"Normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging," he said.

"But I'm going to fight this and I'm going to keep working. And with the love and support of my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease."

We Live Up Here, a Sudbury-based urban art group, is working to showcase the beloved game-show host in his hometown. The group is selling Alex Trebek enamel pins, with the profits going to the Pancreatic Cancer Canada Foundation.

"Trebek is one of the most well-known people to come out of Sudbury," Christian Pelletier one of the co-founders of We Live Up Here said.

"We decided to make those pins in 2017 and gave them out as perks for folks who bought passports for the Up Here festival."

Pelletier says about 500 were given out at the time. The rest have been for sale on the We Live Up Here website since then.

"With the news breaking last week of his pancreatic cancer diagnosis we started seeing sales coming in from across the U.S. and Canada.," he said.

"We felt a little weird about it because we're selling pins with Alex Trebek's face on them and this guy's undergoing this not so fun challenge."

Pelletier says the decision was made to raise awareness and money for the Pancreatic Cancer Canada Foundation. He's also ordered more pins to put up for sale.

So far, he says about 250 have been sold in Sudbury, across Canada and the United States. They cost $5 plus shipping.