More Than An Escape, One Video Game Gives Hope To Young Cancer Patients
The game “Re-Mission” created in April of 2006 by HopeLab, a non-profit organization operating out of Palo Alto, CA and founded by Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, educates and entertains the young cancer patients by way of a cancer fighting nanobot named “Roxxi”. The children take control of the character making its way through the human body of cancer patient, blasting away at leukemia cells with a multipurpose “med blaster”.
While some may argue that this is no different than any other shooter game, the developers believe that the premise and purpose of Re-Mission far outweigh potential for criticism. Studies have been conducted by HopeLab regarding their games effectiveness on the cancer treatment of 375 random cancer patients, both male and female, ages 13 through 29. While the results were in favor of the game, it is certain that there will be individuals that question the validity and doubt the games contribution.
Anyone that has ever had their life or the life of someone close to them turned upside down by cancer, or any disease for that matter, knows that any means of being able to visualize a successful outcome offers hope, and hope is a very powerful thing.
CIGNA Corporation, a Philadelphia, PA based insurance company partnered with HopeLab on Wednesday May 30th, 2007. The partnership will allow the game to reach tens of thousands of young individuals dealing with the effects of cancer.
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