Games can and should comfort patients with life-threatening illnesses

In 2009, I left a fantastic job at YouTube to join a relatively new startup: Justin.tv. I believed livestreaming was the future and spent my early days on infrastructure scaling and stability, cost control through procurement and architecture, and global connection strategy. When we pivoted to Twitch, I put years of my life into it, focusing on video software technologies and strategy and development of broadcaster success features. I felt blessed.

But over four years ago, my then-3-year-old son was diagnosed with B-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We had minutes to try to process the diagnosis – treatment had to start immediately. Over the next two and a half years, we were in and out of hospitals constantly for planned procedures and unscheduled fevers. Today I’m relieved to say he’s doing well; we continue to take it one day at a time, knowing his cancer could still return.