Every now and again, people in the gaming community can come together and remind you that there are genuinely good people out there in the world. This was the case when a terminally ill fan approached the Borderlands Reddit with a request.
Trevor Eastman, who goes by taurustrev online, was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal, stomach, and liver cancer. He’s not sure how long he has left, and tragically doesn’t know if he’ll even make it to Borderlands 3’s September 13 release date, let alone if he’ll be well enough to enjoy the game (via DualShockers).
About a month ago, Trevor decided to head to the official Borderlands Reddit to explain his situation, and asked if anyone knew of a way he could get hold of a copy of Borderlands 3 early.
In a long post, Trevor explained:
Hi everyone. I don’t even know if this is a possibility…if anyone can make this happen for me…but my name is Trevor Eastman and I’m 26 years old. Last June I was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal, stomach and liver cancer. I was given a year to live…I’ve been a huge fan of Borderlands for a long time now…and I don’t know if I’ll live to see Borderlands 3. If there’s any possible way that someone could find a way for me to be able to play it early…I would be forever grateful. I tried to see if I could see Avengers: Endgame early because I’m not sure how long I really have…but i wasn’t so lucky. If anybody could help me that would mean the world to me.
As you can see, Trevor wasn’t particularly asking for anyone to go out of their way for him or make a fuss – he simply wondered if anyone could point him in the right direction, and he’d take it from there. The response, however, was heartwarming.
If you take a look through the Reddit thread, you’ll see just how many people came out with supportive comments and genuine advice, while also promising to Tweet Randy Pitchford, email developer Gearbox, or do whatever else it took to get Trevor what he was asking for.
Just a few days ago, Trevor headed back to Reddit to give an update. He confirmed that thanks the efforts of the community, he’d been speaking to a rep for 2K Games (he couldn’t say who), and revealed that someone is heading out to him at the start of June, presumably to either give him a build of the game, or make sure he gets some time with it.
Trevor thanked the community in a moving post, writing:
Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you all that were kind enough to upvote and tweet about my situation an update. One of the people from 2k has been talking to me(not sure if I’m allowed to say who so I won’t mention a name) and he’s making it happen. They’re flying somebody out at the beginning of June most likely to give me a copy of the game. I just wanted to thank you all so much for helping make this dream come true. It means the world to me that you all cared enough to do that for me.
Personally, I think it’s fantastic that the Borderlands community came together to make Trevor’s wish come true, and I sincerely hope he has the best time with the game in June.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.