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Hi. My name is Kate. I have been playing Overwatch since open beta last year on May 23rd, and it's been a wild ride from then up to this point. Overwatch has held a special place in my heart, as it has with many others for the past year or so no doubt, and I don't know where else to post a thank you to the Overwatch team. I know they read the forums often enough and respond now and then when they have the time, but I want to explain how Overwatch has personally affected my life so they can understand how much they have helped me out indirectly.

Last year, on March 24th, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (cancer). I had been working 40-50 hours a week at my local convenient store, trying to support my father and I at the time. I was only 19, and he didn't have much in the way of a job, so I couldn't afford time off or much of a break until I was forced to go to the ER earlier in March by a concerned coworker. The diagnosis came a few weeks later after a couple biopsies, but the signs were there -- I had lost 70 pounds over the prior months, was in a constant state of exhaustion, dizzy spells were frequent, and unrelenting pain in my chest put me on the edge 24/7. I went through a few surgeries, one being to have a port implanted so I could undergo chemotherapy for 6 months. I had to stop work immediately once I found out, and was left to the whims of my landlord, friends, and family who tried helping out however they could. (Just because you get sick, it unfortunately doesn't mean the bills stop coming..)

Going further down the line, once I had started chemotherapy, I was bedridden. I was unable to do little more than simply exist-- eating was impossible for the first week after having a round of chemo, as was drinking, and I often had to be taken to the ER or my treatment center to receive IV fluids because of the dehydration. As my strength left me, so did my ability to walk on my own for a long time. It was summer time before I was able to move around without needing assistance or a wheelchair. I was on numerous medications, I remember at least four being to combat nausea, as I was dry heaving every other minute or so for couple months-- I had my very own bucket I kept at my side, because I lacked the ability to use the restroom by myself.

I remember being hyped up when I realized the open beta was going to start in May. I had barely touched the computer much after my diagnosis, as I was just too exhausted all the time, but I had to try out Overwatch. All my friends had been excited for it, I was excited for it since I saw the cinematics on youtube, and I spent as much energy as I had that first day playing on open beta. In fact, it was my second FPS game I've ever played, next to TF2, and I had set my mouse sensitivity up to 100% without thinking about it and had thought that the game was too good for my computer because the screen kept changing so fast every time I tried to move!

After realizing it was just my fault (as normal) that the game was acting crazy, I grew to love Overwatch. When the open beta ended, I was saddened because I was too afraid to buy it knowing that I had to be careful with what money I had left. My memory is a bit iffy in the earlier months of chemotherapy, but I remember asking my dad if it was alright if I used $40 of our money to buy Overwatch. At the state I was in, chemotherapy had left me deathly ill, and my dad was more on the side of providing whatever made me happy rather than staying strict with finances and said that if that's what I wanted, then I should buy it. (It probably helped too that I didn't get anything for my birthday other than a card from my sister, so technically it can be viewed as my own belated birthday present to myself. June 4th btw!!)

Playing the game was.. difficult. I could only spend 5-10 minutes playing it at a time throughout the day, as I simply didn't have the energy to sit up and be energized for it. As time wore on, my body grew accustomed to the chemotherapy, and I started being able to spend a little bit more and more playing.

Very late August, I joined a discord server known as Liberty's Last Army (LLA). I'd received an invite from a old friend because there were people who played Overwatch in it, and I wanted in.

During Season 2 of Overwatch comp, I made so many friends in LLA and the game itself. I made friends that I talk with every day, that I play other games with now on a regular basis, that we group up with others now and then and have custom matches and still play QP and everything together just like last year. (It's hard to do comp anymore because some of our ranks have split now, some of are in silver or gold, a few are in diamond, and myself and a best friend are in masters [[HE'S AIMIN FOR THAT GRANDMASTER TOP 500 GET READY FOR THE BEST 720ING MCCREE YOU'VE EVER SEEN]]).

The point I want to get across is -- because of my cancer, I was limited to very few things I could do in life. Every day I suffered in pain, whether it was the cancer, chemotherapy, side effects, or who knows what, it was a bad day.

But. Overwatch was there for me. Overwatch turned my bad days into good days. There were days where I simply had to mute my mic on discord because my throat was sore and worn out from laughing so much during Overwatch. Overwatch kept me happy during one of the worst periods of my life.

After chemotherapy, there was a month break before I had about a month of radiation. Then more scans. Anyone who's ever had a PET scan can tell you all about the gross milkshake smoothie stuff they make you drink. I don't miss those at all. In January, I had my port taken out, and I was in the clear. I had spent almost a year with cancer, and I was ready to get my life back on track and start over from step 1. (rip savings..)

You'd think I'd have posted this back then, back when I was "cured". I thought about it, but then I started getting caught up with work, taking back 40 hours a week again back at the same job. I wasn't able to play Overwatch as much as I wanted anymore, but I still tried to manage to squeeze some time in there.

I was warned of a microscopic chance of my cancer coming back. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't given it much thought. The thought occurred to me every day. I was always scared in the back of my mind, especially only still just recovering, of a resurgence.

A few months ago.. my old symptoms returned. The pain returned. I had high hopes that I simply had just burned myself out by working. But then the weight loss came. It wasn't much, but when I looked myself in the mirror before a shower, I could see it -- I'm about 5'2", and I normally manage around 150 pounds and stay chubby/fat because I'm happy with myself like that. A trip to the scale had told me I had lost 10 pounds.. for no apparent reason.

I'll get to the point. My cancer is back. I had a CT scan on Tuesday, and after being told it could take up to 72 hours to hear back my results, my doctor had called me 3 hours later to inform me that "the disease" had reoccurred. That there's already a full body scan setup next week to find out how far it's gotten this time. That I'll have to go through everything again a second time to figure this out.

I've already cried about it. I'm still crying about it. I'm never not going to cry about it. It's been less than 9 months since my last chemotherapy treatment. It hasn't even been a full year since I was told I would be okay. While I've received verbal support from some friends and family, there was no one but my father who stayed with me and physically helped me out throughout my time of need. He has been one of the best father's anyone could ever ask for, from getting up at 3am to help me with medication to wiping back tears while holding back his own.

I'm prepping up for the rest of this year to be a tough one. And I'm turning back to Overwatch in my time of need again to help keep me happy. It's one of the few things I'll be able to do once all my treatments start up again.

So thank you, Overwatch team. Thank you for making such an amazing game. Thank you for making characters that I love to play and love to read about in the comics. Thank you for making event after event for all us players, and working tireless hours to create new content and facilitate old content. To keep in touch with your playerbase and constantly review feedback. To even go so far as change how the game works because of player feedback. That's one thing I'll always be grateful for, no matter how many decisions I may find a bit wacky. ;)

Thank you for everything you've done since you've created Overwatch. You've helped many players out there have many enjoyable experiences, but you've especially helped me recover through cancer the first time around. And I'm going to be counting on you the second time, too.

Thank you.

Edit:

I honestly did not expect this much positivity or reaction from the community at large. Seriously, thank you everyone who has wished me good luck or is keeping me in their prayers.

I've had multiple requests in this thread to set up a gofundme, and while that's not the main reason I set up this thread, I set one up just recently if anyone wanted to help me out. (I don't want this to be labeled as begging for donations, so please don't see it that way.)

https://www.gofundme.com/fighting-cancer-one-cell-at-a-time