Urgent: Help Babscoole (Scott) Survive Cancer

Hello, I'm Britt (Gumsk) of the No Man's Sky modding community. We are trying to organize help for Babscoole (Scott) in his fight against stage 4 cancer. The modding community already did what we could in November with donations, but we are a small group without much means ourselves, and that didn't last long. Now we need to seek help from outside the modding community.

Who is Babscoole?

In the real world, he is Scott: a US 56-year-old Army veteran, former firefighter, and loving father of two. Most of you probably know him as Babscoole, a cornerstone of the NMS modding community for years. If you have used a mod or a modding tool, chances are extremely high that Babscoole was involved. He makes many mods, helps others make mods, creates scripts for other authors' mods, maintains a collection of mod scripts, helps with the development of multiple modding tools, and moderates/administrates multiple NMS modding communities. It is not an exaggeration to say that Babscoole is one of the most influential and helpful members in NMS modding and the overall NMS community.

His Cancer

Babscoole has been diagnosed with stage 4, small cell, throat cancer that has spread to his voice box and tongue. He is undergoing both radiation and chemotherapy and will be seeing a doctor again soon for an update. This has been extremely difficult for him, making it impossible to eat or drink, requiring him to be on a feeding tube until recently. Since his diagnosis, he has lost over 1/3 of his weight: 80 pounds (36 kg), down to 120 pounds (55 kg). He still has trouble tasting anything and can't swallow anything too firm or rough without strong painkillers. Exact diagnosis details are at the bottom of this page.

His Situation

Since his diagnosis, things have been difficult, to say the least. He had previously worked as a soldier, EMT, firefighter, IT security expert, and network engineer; but, after moving for his family, he's had difficulty finding work in his fields. To help ends meet and support his family, he turned to driving a school bus part-time. After his diagnosis, even that has been impossible. He will be divorced soon and has two young kids (3 and 5) that he needs to take care of. Babscoole will likely have legal bills as he fights for custody of his children, and he needs to move out of his house, into an apartment. He will need to buy all new furnishings and necessities of life. Babscoole's bank account has been nearly emptied and, ultimately, he did not receive much of the unemployment money he was supposed to. Unemployment status ran out on December 28th, and while he is pursuing disability status, that can take over four months, if he can get it at all. Medical insurance covered most of his previous medical expenses, but he no longer has that and treatment may have to continue soon, which will likely cost hundreds or thousands per month.

His Needs

Combining upcoming medical bills, rent, utilities, food, furnishings, and supporting his children, we are hoping to get to $20,000 USD or beyond. Even that would not cover everything or ensure his well-being, but it would buy him some time.

This page has to be setup in Canadian dollars, due to Babscoole's physical location, so it might look confusing at first with the $ symbol. The current exchange rate is 1 USD = 0.6967 CAD, so if you want to donate 10 American dollars, you would need to donate 14.35 Canadian dollars on this page.

Details and Verification

Scott is a 56-year-old male, originally from the United States of America, but moved to Canada for his family. He served in the US Army with 11B and 54B MOS and was deployed for Desert Shield\Storm. His firefighter certifications included Structural Firefighter I and II, Technical Rescue, Fire Investigation, and Wildland Firefighter, among others. For EMT verification, he says he "knows his DCAP-BTLS". The CT of his neck in July of 2024 said: "Left tonsillar mass has enlarged, measuring 4.8 x 3.7 x 6.5 cm (AP x TR x CC), extending into the tongue base and vallecula with involvement of the genioglossus and hypoglossus muscles...Impression: Large left oropharyngeal mass with ipsilateral metastatic adenopathy...". If you want further details to verify who I am, who Scott is, or the truth of his situation, you can contact me.