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Video game helps 12 year old in Cancer battle

1 June 2007 7:37 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 6 comments

Taylor Carol was diagnosed last year with Leukemia. He needed a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy amongst other things. However, one form of treatment was a little odd; playing a video game called Re-Mission, developed by HopeLab, as often as possible. Taylor first saw the game last June at the Children's Hospital of Orange County in California but was skeptical of it at first. "For the first few months I didn't want to hear about it," Taylor told InformationWeek. "I was still in kind of shock."

Eventually, he got over the fear of being forced to confront his condition and decided to try it out. "After about my second round of chemo, I became more interested. I was feeling so gross, I wanted to why this was happening," he says. "I really wanted to learn about my cancer, but I didn't want to do it by reading a text book." Re-Mission aims to team children and teens suffering from Cancer exactly how it affects their bodies and about treatment.

"I learned that cancer cells reproduce so quickly," he says. "I thought maybe it would be two or three rounds of chemo, but it turns out it's a much longer fight. Fighting cancer is a lot harder than you think." The game features a nanobot named Roxxi who educates children and teens as he fights off cancer inside the human body.

"I liked killing the things that made me so tired and all of the things that made me miss my friends," Taylor said. Every level of the game featured a different cyber patient with a different form of cancer. Roxxi has a selection of weapons to fight off disease, taking on lymphoma cells, mouth sores, and bacteria with the aid of a chemo and "bacto" blasters as well as antibiotic rockets. Taylor favored the chemo blaster because it cuts through Roxxi's opposition like a machine gun.

Taylor's been in remission since the middle of December and visits the Doctor regularly. He must take 40 pills per day but things are looking up now that the summer is here and he can spend more time with his friends. He highly recommends the game to any child or teenager in a similar condition. "It can help you feel better when you're in your lowest days," he said.

Source:
Yahoo

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Discuss this article!
spydah (Junior Member) 1 June 2007 11:19
I am glad they found something to help him. This is a sad article. I could not take 40 pills a day but i guess if there is no other alternative you have to do what you got to do. Taylor is a trooper. [ + quote]
Paladore (Junior Member) 1 June 2007 11:23
glad to hear about taylor being in remission, good sign :) Always terrible to hear about young people getting cancer but its wonderful to hear about them fighting and surviving it. [ + quote]
aone (Newbie) 1 June 2007 13:21
this makes me wanna cry, but excellent news. [ + quote]
venomX05 (Senior Member) 1 June 2007 16:56
See...it's s**t like this that makes it great be into video games. Over the last few years, games are actually making a difference in peoples lives. I for one say good for him to not let his condition throw him back... Keep up the good fight, kiddo! [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 1 June 2007 20:05
My sentiments are like everyone else here this is sad news. But its a great tool to teach and make the whole process at least fun and indirectly not thinking about the condition and in some physiological way Taylor can defeat the cancer. I like hearing improvements in the medical field like this. I'm sending this off to a few of my friends that may find this really exciting news. [ + quote]
Unfocused (Member) 19 July 2007 19:37
See, video games are good. [ + quote]