Our Story | Health Hero Games

Medicine treats the cancer in kids.
Play treats the kid with cancer.

The story behind Cancer Crusher, from a hospital room at UCLA to a game box 20 years in the making.

The game I needed at age 9

I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was nine years old. During treatment, board games became my solace. They gave me something cancer couldn’t take away: the chance to laugh, make choices, and feel like a kid again — not just a patient.

Now, as a UCLA pediatrician training in childhood cancer care, I meet families navigating many of the same challenges mine once did. Kids are trying to understand what is happening to their bodies, while the people who love them are searching for ways to make it feel a little less scary and lonely.

I created Cancer Crusher to be the game I wish I had: one that makes confusing medical experiences easier to understand, opens the door to questions and honest conversations, and creates moments of joy and connection, even on the hardest days.

Dr. Tae-León Butler today, in her white coat at UCLA

Tae at age nine during cancer treatment at UCLA, smiling with her mother

Why play?

Play is how kids make sense of things

Long before kids can explain what they feel, they play it out. Play gives children a way to explore big, confusing experiences in a language they already speak.

Play restores choice

So much of a hospital stay happens to a child. In play, kids make the moves, take the turns, and feel a sense of control that treatment often takes away.

Play brings people together

A shared game creates natural moments to sit close, laugh, and talk. That's why play has been at the heart of child life practice in children's hospitals for decades.