beforeyoukillyourcomputer.com

Last week 10-year-old Ezra Chatterton helped design a new quest in World of Warcraft. The Make-a-Wish Foundation had arranged a day-long session with Blizzard Entertainment for Ezra, who is fighting metastatic brain cancer. Since then gamers worldwide have emailed their support — and yesterday an online fund was created to help him with his fight.

Ezra’s been facing discomfort, his father told the local paper. But last week’s visit “impacted his health and happiness,” and their limousine ride home from Blizzard Entertainment was one of the few times he’d seen Ezra feeling “contentment and peace.” A second time was yesterday, “as his mother and I read letter after letter from World of Warcraft players and others across the globe who wanted to send their love.”

The heart-warming story comes from Southern California, where a local reporter is also providing updates on the paper’s blog. “He sat back from his dinner in the bed and just smiled deep from his heart,” Ezra’s father tells them, “as we read him each of your messages.

“You gave him that smile, and I will always be thankful for that.” continue reading…

Kids with cancer now have a new tool for understanding and fighting their disease. Re-Mission, a new video game created by HopeLab, is a "3-D shooter" that takes kids through the bodies of young patients with different forms of cancer, and it’s having an incredible effect on patients.

The idea is that it’s much easier to learn when you’re playing and having fun. Through playing the game, the kids learn information about the disease, quality of life, self-effacy (which the company defines as being able to take action in a challenging situation) and how to adhere to their medication.

By winning the game, the kids feel like they can win their medical battle.

According to an outcome study conducted by HopeLab, the overall self-effacy score of patients increased dramatically, and Re-Mission players maintained higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed higher rates of antibiotic utilization — thus, the method was helpful in 80% of patients.

What an amazing idea!

[via Neatorama]

Source