World of Warcraft

     I'm completely admitting my dorkdom for this post. I'd like to tell the story of Ezra Chatterton, known as ePhoenix in the World of Warcraft. Ezra was only 10 years old when he discovered he had a brain tumor and was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Since Ezra was contained to a hospital bed for treatment, he started to really enjoy the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game, World of Warcraft. Ezra was granted a wish from Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. "I wished for a trip to Blizzard because I'd like to see if they could make a character and do some things for us." (Blizzard is the company that makes WoW) Not only did Blizzard meet this wish, they completely outdid themselves. Ezra went to Blizzard for a day where they designed a whole new weapon, a mount, and a quest. The quest involved Ezra doing a sound recording for the quest characters voice, and they even made his dog in the game. They also completely outfitted his character in the best armor and weapons. Now this doesn't sound like much if you don't play WoW, but the weapon they created for him is an extremely rare item. He was the only one with his mount in the entire game (of 8.5 million people). It was the best mount of its time.
     Unfortunately about a year later, Ezra ended up dying from his brain tumor. They ended up making Ezra's character a Elder during the game's Lunar Festival. His weapon, quest, and mount still exist in Azeroth.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/business/article_1702706.php