Minecraft cancer game aims to 'break taboos'

Surgeon Johnny Ferguson hopes the game will give children tools to deal with cancer in their families

A surgeon has teamed up with the makers of the world's bestselling computer game in an effort to "break the taboo" of cancer and help children better understand the condition.

Lung cancer surgeon Johnny Ferguson, from James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, worked with the makers of Minecraft and the Ruth Strauss Foundation to help develop an educational game about the disease set in the block-based virtual world.

He said: "We need to start talking about cancer and not allow it to be a taboo subject. One in two adults will get cancer… so we need to give them [children] the tools to deal with that."

The game, which is called Detect & Diagnose, is free to use for all schools in the UK.

In the game, a player becomes a medical student who goes around different hospital departments.

They meet patients and learn what cancer is and how it is diagnosed, all in an age-appropriate way.

The Ruth Strauss Foundation, which supports families facing the death of a parent, said it was essential children understood how cancer may affect them, their friends and their families.

The charity's director of services Deepa Doshi said some children have a real misunderstanding of how cancer works.

"Some may think it's contagious and [that they] could catch it, or fear in some ways they might have caused it," she said.

The charity said it was understandable that families shied away from these discussions for fear of causing upset to their children, but they hoped the game would help aid constructive conversations.