What is sarcoma? Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade reportedly died of rare cancer after raising $500k for foundation

Minecraft legend Technoblade's passing has plunged the gaming community into mourning over the last couple of days. In his tragic final video, the YouTuber revealed his first name to be Alex. The OG Mincraft player reportedly succumbed to a rare type of cancer called sarcoma towards the end of last month.

Fans and gaming personalities all over the world have shown their love and respect for Alex by flooding social media with encouraging messages, fanarts, and stories.

Friends like Skeppy, Dream, and other Minecraft streamers have posted heartfelt tributes on YouTube, explaining the close relationship they had with Technoblade and how his passing has affected people close to him.

Alex went public with the news of his cancer diagnosis in August 2021, and had since been raising money for charity through the SFA (Sarcoma Foundation of America) via his YouTube videos and streams.

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Technoblade raised half-a-million dollars for cancer research while battling sarcoma himself

About 1% of adults in the USA with cancer have sarcoma, while 20% childhood cancers fall into the category. This particular variant is a cancer of connective tissues — namely nerves, joints, bones, and blood vessels. Sarcoma tumors primarily target limbs.

About 16,000 new cases of this type of cancer are diagnosed in the United States every year. The Minecrafters Vs Cancer program has pledged to donate money to research that could save millions of lives one day.

According to the SFA website, the stream absolutely destroyed the fundraising goal of $250k and its total donations amounted to a whopping $351,087.68. Sarcoma research is the primary focus of the donation and according to website, the disease is a very rare type of cancer.

Alex was a big proponent of the donation drive and the Sarcoma Foundation of America expressed their gratitude to the YouTuber for his contributions in these words:

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Technoblade. His generosity and selflessness were evident when he was able to rally his fans and followers to raise over $500,000 for SFA to date... We are overwhelmed by their outpouring of love, support, and generosity and want to thank everyone who made donations in his honor."

His integrity and fortitude is what drew so many people to his community and it is no wonder that the SFA has also announced that they will be awarding Technoblade with their Courage Award this September at the Sarcoma Gala:

"The Courage Award is given annually to sarcoma survivors or advocates who illustrate, through their personal efforts and actions, sarcoma advocacy... Technoblade was a shining example of a courage award honoree."

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How Technoblade was diagnosed with cancer

In August 2021, Alex revealed how he had mistaken the pain in his right hand for some sort of repeated stress disorder; but the doctors had worse news:

"August 2nd I headed over to the doctor to see what was wrong and they ran a couple of scans and then they came back. They told me that, uh, the reason my arm hurts is because I have cancer."

In an update video from December, Alex talked about the amputation scare the doctors gave him when the family was told that they had the option to amputate his infected arm. After a discussion, however, they decided against it.

"I'm like, would amputated increase my survival odds compared to the other one? And he goes, 'no, not really.' Well then why would anyone do that? Why was this presented as an option? So yeah..."

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Technoblade was a beloved member of the Minecraft community, who not only stayed dedicated to his audience through so much hardship, but also raised awareness and did charity work for cancer research. The posthumous award is a testament of his character and is another reason why Technoblade will never die.