Cancer unit stars in game to ease kids' treatment fear

MINECRAFT is helping a 10-year-old girl cope with her cancer treatment.

- BY CHRIS RICHES

Volunteer coders created a version of the Christie Hospital’s daunting proton therapy machine and its environs inside the game, so Ramatulaye could explore it before going there for real. She is having proton beam therapy — a precisely targeted version of radiotherapy — for blood cancer Hodgkin lymphoma.

Ramatulaye said: “It looks just the same as the hospital, it’s so cool.

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“I got to explore the playroom and the gantry where I have treatment every day.

“The hospital feels very big when you get here, so being able to explore it in Minecraft helps you to understand where everything is, which is great. I think other children would love it just as much as me.”