Borderlands fan diagnosed with stage 4 cancer sees GoFundMe jump over $10,000 to smash its goal days after the game’s community gets involved
Maybe this trashfire world ain’t so trashy
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Earlier this week, a self-proclaimed “diehard” fan of the Borderlands looter shooter series called Caleb McAlpine shared that he’dbeen diagnosed with terminal stage 4 cancer, and was then put into contact with the game’s developerin hopes that he’d be able to playBorderlands 4early. That’s not the only thing the Borderlands community has helped with, however, as funding for his treatment has rocketed in the days since.
McAlpine explained that doctors had given him an estimated 7-12 months left to live in the worst case scenario, and even if he responded well to chemotherapy treatment, he might not see passed another two years. As such, McAlpine reached out to the community onsocial mediaand asked if there was a chance he’d be able to play the upcoming Borderlands 4 before its official release next year.
DeveloperGearboxSoftware’s CEO Randy Pitchford was apparently made aware of the situation and has since been emailing the long-time fan “to do whatever we can to make something happen.”
The Borderlands community didn’t just share and spread McAlpine’s story, though. TheGoFundMe pagethat’s raising money to cover his medical expenses and travel to the cancer centre has since smashed passed its $9,000 goal. When we first covered McAlpine’s story three days ago, the campaign had raised $2,465. At the time of writing now, the page has since quadrupled and sits at $10,637 - 118% above the initial goal.
In a follow-up comment onReddit, McAlpine shared his gratitude to online folks who helped spread the word. “Thank you everyone for your kind words,” he wrote, “I just want to let you all know that Gearbox has something in the works and I will be going down to Texas to meet with all of them at their HQ as long as I’m able to travel towards the middle November or end of November. Thank you to everyone. It means more than words can describe.”
Borderlands 4 is set on an all-new planet rather than series mainstay Pandora.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
After 9 months and over 800 hours of attempts, Borderlands 2 player manages to complete the entire game without getting hit once
Borderlands fan will get to see Borderlands 4 early after Gearbox agrees to fly him to the studio following cancer diagnosis: “I never expected anything like this”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance dev explains that the RPG had to take place at a very specific point in time - so that there aren’t any guns
