Borderlands 4 Early Access Could Be Given to Terminal Illness Fans

Key Takeaways

Borderlands and the larger gaming community rallied around Caleb, a terminally ill fan of the looter shooter.
What started as a simple request turned into a wish fulfillment. Caleb is scheduled to meet with Gearbox in November if he is healthy.
Gamers also smashed his GoFundMe to help him pay for much-needed medical bills.

It started as a simple request and has since resonated throughout the gaming community.

A few days ago, Caleb, a 37-year-old disabled veteran diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, asked the Borderlands subreddit if there was a way to contact Gearbox. As the cancer spread quickly, Caleb's life expectancy was between seven and 12 months, or less than two months overall if chemotherapy was successful. After finding out that he might not be attending the recently released Borderlands 4, Caleb jumped the gun.

What happened next is the type of power a gaming community can have. His post has since racked up over 18,000 likes and hundreds of comments from people trying to make his wish come true and wishing him well.

Caleb's wish will come true

Shortly after Caleb's post went viral, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to let fans know that he was aware of Caleb's affair. Pitchford said in a post Wednesday that he and Caleb were “chatting via email” and that “we will do everything we can to make something happen.”

Now, in an updated post on Reddit, Caleb has revealed that Gearbox is working on something for him. If healthy, he will travel down to Texas to meet with the team at their Texas headquarters in mid to late November. “Thank you everyone. This means more than words can describe,” Caleb wrote in his post.

Not only is Caleb's wish seemingly coming true, but gamers from all over the world have banded together to help him reach his GoFundMe page goal. As of this writing, more than $11,000 has been raised, well exceeding the original goal of $9,000. Funds will also be used for medical and travel expenses, as well as food due to his mandatory specialized liquid diet.

Here's Caleb and his fight. We all hope you can now travel in November.