When Mike Mariana played Destiny, he would often put the controller down, wait for the nausea to pass, and curse his chemotherapy treatments. But soon enough, he'd be zipping around again, hoping this would be The Run, when he made it to Destiny's fabled Lighthouse, a glittering location on Mercury, cast in a golden light. It's a place very few Destiny players see because it's incredibly hard to get there.

This all happened earlier this year, but a little over three years ago, in late 2013, Mike was just having trouble with constipation. A diet change seemed to help things—until it didn't. His girlfriend kept pestering him to see a doctor, but Mike was stubborn. He agreed to see a doctor after his 40th birthday, a short ways away, and would later tell his girlfriend there was a reason for being stubborn: he had already guessed it would be bad news, and wanted to put off the inevitable.

"I wanted to see if I could make a man who had been battling something attacking him from the inside turn into a kid again," said streamer Ben "Dr Lupo" Lupo.

You get to The Lighthouse by passing the Trial of Osiris, where you must win nine multiplayer matches in a row. Despite their best efforts, Mike and his buddies couldn't pull it off. It was was a race against time, too; Mike had cancer. In desperation, as Mike began to emotionally struggle with his condition, his friends reached out to Destiny streamer who specializes in guiding folks there. He agreed to help.

In the game, The Lighthouse is described as "a beautiful place, and forbidding," a private, exotic locale "ornamented extensively with fabrics and ritual objects of unknown provenance." It was meant for a special group of visitors, a rare treat.

Mike during one of his many hospital visits over the years. He was usually trying to cheer other people up. Images courtesy of Christy Morehouse

"They figured he would need something to pass the time," said his girlfriend, Christy. "They were right. But what they didn't know was that it would help him through so much more."

It wasn't just any cancer, either; Mike had been diagnosed with colon cancer, and worse still, the cancer was moving fast, as it was already in his lymph nodes. Soon after, he started six weeks of intensive chemotherapy and radiation. His buddies also bought him a PlayStation 4.

Christy met Mike online, and described a relationship that managed plenty of love, humor, and adventure, even as Mike was hurtling towards the unknown. He was a big laugher, loved improv comedy, and would watch any mafia movie you put in front of him. And besides pizza, games, and collecting sneakers, Mike had a fondness for the Marvel Comics character Deadpool.

"It was the first time a scan was normal," said Christy. "We were so excited!"

Things got complicated after Mike started chemotherapy. Following surgery to remove the cancer, Mike suffered an infection and became very ill. When he got well enough to start another round of chemotherapy, doctors found a nodule (basically, a lump) on his liver but weren't worried—at first. For most of 2015, the nodule was fine, but eventually, it started growing, requiring more surgery. After that, more chemotherapy. Then, they scanned him.

Tim Baron was one of those online friends. Tim, Mike, and a group of others would float from game to game, but Mike stuck with Destiny. When Tim checked in, he learned about the cancer diagnosis. Tim decided to download Destiny again, so he could keep playing with him.

One of the games he quickly fell in love with was Destiny. When Christy would come home from work, he'd tell her about his adventures "with his friends that he had never met." He'd get up in the wee hours of the morning to be at his computer for breaking news about the game. But more importantly, Mike met people and made friendships in a world away from cancer.

"Probably because they had something in common," she said. "Deadpool battled cancer, too."

He was also the father of two kids, 19-year-old Tony and 17-year-old Abby, and later became close with Christy's 22-year-old son, Tyler. His online friends said Mike would often be caught bragging about his kids while they played.

"Mike would move heaven and earth for his kids," she said. "He always made sure they had what they needed. He went to sporting events even when he wasn't feeling well."

After the scan, for the better part of a year, everything went back to normal. When Mike started having vision problems, the hope was that prescription glasses would fix everything. A week later, though, Mike was experiencing terrible headaches, had trouble seeing out of one eye, and couldn't keep steady while standing. Fearing the worst, they went to the hospital.

The news was bad: there was a cancerous tumor pressing on Mike's spinal cord, explaining the issues. It had to be removed immediately. Four hours later, there was some confidence things were looking up—it appeared that more than 90% of the tumor had been removed. Despite that, Mike had suffered a cerebral spinal fluid leak. That meant more surgery. Surgery alone is stressful and dangerous, but for Mike, it meant additional distance from another round of chemotherapy. Though his latest surgery was successful, it came saddled with problems.

"He never thought once about giving in to the cancer. He looked at as just another hurdle to jump and he would be back working in a normal job just like the rest of us."

Mike's treatments began to impact gaming, one of his favorite ways to briefly escape pressures of real-life and heavy questions weighing over him. (How should he talk to his children about what's probably going to happen? What about the dog?) To his frustration, he would occasionally get motion sickness.