I’m going to take some time today to talk about something very, very serious: Cancer. Each of us, at some point in our lives, have known somebody that has suffered from some form of cancer and survived or lost their battle with cancer. It’s a brutal disease that doesn’t have a cure yet. I say yet, because there are groups of medical scientists that are fighting to find some way to beat this monster. There are multiple forms of cancer: Liver, prostate, breast, lung, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and leukemia among others. I bring this up because I’m a frequent visitor to a particular YouTube personality known as Totalbiscuit. His real name is John Bain and he’s British. He runs a YouTube channel where he gives first impressions on new PC games. He also does podcasts and owns and runs an E-sports team for a game called Starcraft II. He’s quite the character. He’s funny, smart and not afraid to tell things as he sees them. He’s one of the most honest YouTubers on the network. He managed to make it his full-time job, which is quite a feat, actually. About a year or so ago, he was diagnosed with cancer in his bowels, so ended up fighting that, getting chemotherapy and generous amounts of rest. A couple of months ago, it seems that he managed to beat the disease. Awesome right? For a while, anyway. Unfortunately, I read this morning on a gaming news website that his cancer had returned. Apparently spots were discovered in his liver. This appears to be a very aggressive and terminal kind of cancer, as if there was any other kind, right? The general life expectancy for someone afflicted with this kind of cancer is 2-3 years. This is clearly a very shocking and tragic turn of events. Thankfully, he says he doesn’t feel anything right now, and that he’s going to fight tooth and nail to be an outlier, someone who will defy expectations and hopefully will live a lot longer than his prognosis. I can’t even imagine what his family is going through right now. I don’t know the man personally, but I do know people who have lost their battle with cancer. It’s a very, very difficult thing to come to terms with. I truly wish John “Totalbiscuit” Bain and his family the very best, and I hope he fights it the best he can.
Cancer is a very complicated form of disease. It can be treated with chemotherapy and some surgery. Some people have had success with cancer going into remission, while others like Mr. Bain have unfortunately seen the disease come back stronger than ever. Cancer doesn’t just affect adults, but children as well, which makes it even more tragic. There are various cancer research centers that are dedicated to fighting the disease. One of the most well-known is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. What is special about St. Jude’s is that they are funded mostly by donations. Most of those donations are provided by your average person like you or me. They are truly dedicated to the best care possible for their patients and it is essentially for free. This puts St. Jude’s in a very unique position to help people who need it most. They believe that the care of their patients is far more important than their financial situation. These guys are the leaders in how life-threatening diseases are treated and beaten. Not only that, if they make a medical breakthrough as they have in the past, they freely share that information with everybody else. If you wish to learn more about cancer and it’s various forms, please visit the American Cancer Society. You can also visit the St. Jude Hospital website with the link that I provided. Even if you can’t make a donation, please share this information with everybody that you know. The more we can learn about cancer, the more we can do to fight it. The cure for cancer is out there, we just have to find it. This month is Liver and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.