Two years ago, we wrote about Sasha, a game artist working at Remedy, who had a GoFundMe account created for her to help pay towards needed cancer treatments. The page was updated this week with news that the cancer has spread, despite some beneficial treatments, and with it the increased burden of financial costs.
Being part of a community means looking after our own and, with the harsh nature of cancer, I don't think there's a person reading that hasn't been touched by it. I hope you can join us in helping to donate, or share word of the campaign to help Sasha receive the treatment she requires.
A little bit of background into the GoFundMe: The account was originally created by her twin sister Ann and fellow developer Sergey, following the news that Sasha's cancer has originally spread and that further treatments were necessary. She was originally diagnosed at the start of 2020 with an ocular melanoma, a tumour which led to the loss of her eye. The following year, despite undergoing immunotherapy and radiation therapy, she received an update that the cancer had spread to her liver. This is when the campaign was made as those bills began to pile up.
The GoFundMe has since helped pay towards her Chemoperfusion in Germany, which has been effective in clearing her liver metastases. In addition to those treatments, she's been on weekly Kimmtrak treatments in Finland which has helped slow the cancer's spread. The most recent update has also detailed that the amount raised has also allowed her to cover a Cyberknife procedures on two lung tumours. All of these treatments has helped her battle cancer further and has been beneficial.
Of course, all of this doesn't come cheap and with the news that the cancer has spread, there's a new wave of medical costs. In the latest update, her sister Ann writes, “Now, for the tough news: Sasha’s latest CT scan shows a new metastasis near her clavicle. Because it appeared while she was still on Kimmtrak, her medical team is considering discontinuing this critical therapy. Our options are to pay for Kimmtrak ourselves—an enormous expense—or try TIL [tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte] therapy, which costs around €120,000.”
Alongside the GoFundMe update, the page has also been shared on social media by developers at the studio which has helped gain awareness and donations. At the time of writing, the account is at €152,341 raised. (Of course, this includes the first wave of donations, too.) If you want to be a part of this and help to raise the treatment costs that Sasha needs, please visit her GoFundMe page, HERE!
To help raise money for the campaign, Andrea C White, an incredible artist in the Remedy community has announced that she will be selling an Alan Wake artbook of her work, with all the money raised going towards Sasha's GoFundMe. Writing on Twitter, she explains, “I want to help at least a little, so I'll do what I can. I'm putting my AW2 (fan)art book up for sale, all proceeds from the art book will go to Sasha's gofundme.” She later adds, “The proceeds from my Good Omens and OFMD [Our Flag Means Death] art books will be donated, as well -- the links for the books are in my linktree: https://linktr.ee/andycwhite.”
You can view a free PDF version of the artbook before you buy, HERE!
