Doom fan in hospice spends final weeks playing Doom: The Dark Ages

At the end of January, Redditor Wanderingreader123 — who said he has Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and that his life expectancy had fallen to "possibly weeks" — is spending his final days playing Doom: The Dark Ages from a hospice facility in Toronto. He told Reddit he had been battling cancer since 2022 and that the illness rapidly progressed in 2026.

Hospital staff in Toronto offered to fulfill requests to make his stay more comfortable; Wanderingreader123 wrote, "I never imagined myself to be in a situation where my life expectancy has gone down to possibly weeks." A longtime fan of id Software's rebooted Doom series, he said financial issues prevented him from buying the 2025 sequel.

"I have been a Doom fan since 2016, and it helped me get through some tough times," he wrote, adding he'd played through the Reboot and Doom Eternal and its DLCs. Caretakers procured a PS5 and a portable setup so he could play from bed. He shared a photograph of himself smiling as he loaded the game, and as of a few days ago he'd progressed to chapter 4 of The Dark Ages.

id Software staff took notice: Hugo Martin, a director for several Doom games, thanked Wanderingreader123 and wrote that making the Slayer "feel STRONG in DOOM" was an honor. Martin ended his message, "RIP AND TEAR my friend. You are the real Slayer." Replies on Reddit suggest id Software wants to do as much as it can for him.

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