"He announced it, and he said I know what the statistics are but I'm going to beat it. And I felt like, that's how I felt." Elise Tedeschi had that thought when she heard what Alex Trebek, iconic host of "Jeopardy", revealed to the public on March 6. "Hi everyone. I have some news to share with all of you,' said Trebek in a YouTube message, disclosing he was fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer. "Keep the faith, and we'll win. We'll get it done."

Tedeschi says once she heard that from Trebek, she knew he was giving himself the best chance possible to beat what's typically seen as a death sentence. The 50-year-old Tedeschi can say this - because she's beaten it.

"I know exactly what he's going through," Tedeschi tells WSB Radio. "It's incredible fear, it's a devastating diagnosis to get, but I love his attitude. And I feel that that's probably more than half the battle of going through something like this. So I just felt really compelled to do something about it."

That "something", was write a letter to Trebek to tell of her battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And that it can be conquered. Tedeschi reached out to his PR people, and word got to the editor-in-chief of TheDailyMeal.com. She was encouraged to pen an open letter - she did - they loved it - and it was posted. Since, going viral.

The Smyrna wife and mother's letter offers Trebek support, but as much to give hope to others about to go down the same road with this particular cancer. She's already heard from people that it's given them at least a small window of hope, "so that just makes me incredibly happy," she says.

Elise Tedeschi's diagnosis came in January 2012. "I just remember looking at my sister with I'm sure just this look of complete desperation and despair and, that was not in the plans for my life at all. Just thought about my kids and that was by far the hardest part. They were so young, they were six and eight - one kindergarten and the other one in second grade. It was just pure ...I was so defeated, just had such devastation thinking about 'oh my gosh, wait, this was not the plan."

Tedeschi's boys, Jake and Ryan, and her husband Pat, were all now part of her journey to come. "I've never been a person to ever feel sorry for myself. I'm always that person if I messed up I'm the first to say I messed up. And, sort of on day two I'm like 'alright, what do we do to move forward?' It sounds funny but it was quite easy for me because I'm like 'here we go, game on, let's do this.'"

Tedeschi writes in her open letter: "Like you, Mr. Trebek, I had an outpouring of love and support (on a much, much, much smaller scale). I was astounded by the kindness and sheer beauty from friends and even complete strangers. "My family became my prayer warriors, my caregivers and my security," she wrote.

Tedeschi's diagnosis came with the coda that her pancreatic cancer was inoperable, and that she had nine months to live.

She says the typical whipple procedure that removes the head of the pancreas and parts of other organs...wasn't a true option in her case. So, soon came months of chemotherapy, with two dozen rounds of radiation. Then, a major and new cutting-edge surgery, performed at the University of Louisville. "It's definitely cutting-edge where they take these prongs and they insert them into the tumor and it shocks all of the bad cells out of there, and they fill with calcium and essentially they have cell death," says Tedeschi. "This actually gives a lot of people a lot more hope so it's called the IRE, or NanoKnife."

Incredibly, it all worked - a death sentence diagnosis defeated. As she writes in that open letter: "I beat the crap out of stage 4 pancreatic cancer." She's been in full remission for six and a half years. "It's crazy because I really did beat it way faster than most people. I got diagnosed in January (2012), and October 4th of 2012 I had no active cancer."

LISTEN TO TEDESCHI’S FULL INTERVIEW WITH WSB HERE:

Her battle reinforced her positive outlook on life. "I think for me, yes. I feel like even going through it I'm still absolutely the same person as I am today that I was before. But to me it was an incredible journey of faith too, so I'm definitely a different person. I think quite honestly I'm even happier than I was before."

She calls it all, "this crazy gift in a strange package." Within the toughest days Tedeschi says, there were even little romantic moments at home. Like the times she might have been too tired to walk up the staircase, and her husband Pat was right there. "He would just swoop me up and of course he would always joke, oh you're so heavy, and I was 89-ish pounds. And he would carry me up and I laugh because there were times where I would say, 'yeah I really didn't have to have him carry me up tonight, I could have done it myself, but I thought, why not...I loved it."

Tedeschi is the Atlanta affiliate chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. At pancan.org is a full menu of help for those in the fight against this cancer. She says it's the third deadliest cancer out there, and it needs more funding for research.

Tedeschi's message to those fighting this, or any type cancer: "I would absolutely get second, third, fourth opinions...whatever it takes. And I would definitely say have a medical advocate. Someone that you love, someone that you trust. Mine was my sister, she's nerdy like that and loves all the medical stuff. It allowed me not to think about the statistics."

As for Alex Trebek, she's not connected with him yet - however, "I have a feeling that he and I will definitely talk - for sure. But if anything, if he kind of gets that message and knows that there's other stage four survivors, I think that's super important."

Tedeschi's closing argument as to why to fight in the face of a withering diagnosis: "(I) didn't choose to get cancer, didn't choose to go through this but I certainly get to choose my attitude. And I choose to be happy."