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

Earlier this week, a self-proclaimed “diehard” fan of the Borderlands looter shooter series called Caleb McAlpine shared that he’d been diagnosed with terminal stage 4 cancer, and was then put into contact with the game’s developer in hopes that he’d be able to play Borderlands 4 early. 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 on social media and asked if there was a chance he’d be able to play the upcoming Borderlands 4 before its official release next year.

Developer Gearbox Software’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. The GoFundMe page that’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 on Reddit, 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.