Aussie man first to see Marvel Avengers Endgame after big campaign

A dying Australian man’s dream of watching the final chapter in the Avengers movie franchise before its international release will come true after a massive online campaign.

A dying Australian man’s dream of watching the final chapter in the Avengers movie franchise before its international release will come true after a massive online campaign.

His matter-of-fact post about his dying wish on website Reddit went viral, ­inspired a Twitter campaign that even reached out to Chris Hemsworth and resulted in Disney offering a special showing of the not-quite-finished movie while he still has time.

The last Avengers ended on a cliffhanger and audiences worldwide are desperate to know which of the heroes are alive or truly dead.

His story has also seen an increase in awareness and donations for his rare condition — fanconi anaemia — that took the life of his sister.

Aussie man, known by his Reddit name as alexander_q, will be the first person to see Avengers Endgame before its release. Picture: Supplied

His sister sadly lost her life to fanconi anaemia. Picture: Supplied

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The Sunday Telegraph has agreed to only use the man’s online name “alexander_q” to preserve the privacy of his family, including his young niece.

Now his dream has come true he wants to bring hope to others who have FA, a genetically inherited disease with no cure.

“I didn’t have any particular issues as a child. I wasn’t diagnosed with FA until much later,” he said.

“I often wonder what my life would have been like had I known from the age of 13 that my expected lifespan was only 30-35. I think that would have been a huge psychological burden to bear, and the pressure to make every day count hard to ignore. On the other hand, maybe I would have spent less time playing video games and more travelling.”

There has been a lot of build up into part two of the Avengers movie.

He lost his sister to FA and that is still raw.

“I find it hard to think about her death without being overwhelmed with unwelcome feelings,” he said. She was never diagnosed with FA while alive and died following a bone-marrow transplant, which is highly dangerous for anyone with FA.

“If the doctors had diagnosed her and followed proper precautions, maybe she’d be alive today,” he said.

“Her last words to me were ‘They killed me. I’m dead’. I hope that more doctors become aware of this condition and test all patients before they undergo bone marrow transplants.”

Alexander’s life had been relatively normal until 2017, when he developed mouth cancer, which saw much of his jaw amputated, followed by bone marrow cancer, then in 2018 liver cancer and told he only had a year, at most. During this time, a bone marrow study revealed FA.

Chris Hemsworth, who stars as Thor, was drawn into the online campaign. Picture: Supplied

“In some ways it was a relief — fanconi anaemia was one bit of bad luck at the beginning of my life, rather than a string of unexplained illnesses I didn’t deserve. But it also meant my fate was sealed. I don’t know how long I’ve got, and any of my treatments could kill me if they go wrong.

“The messages of support have propped me up. I’m so used to trolls on the internet that I’d forgotten how much kindness there is in the world.”

Now he has begun this conversation, he wants to take it further.

“I hope that children born with FA today will live to see the day their disease is cured. I hope that doctors get better at spotting the signs of the disease in adults who were not diagnosed as children, like my sister,” he said.

Australia does not have a fanconi charity but the American charity ­fanconi.org said it has received a surge in donations in his name after he included a link to their website.

In Australia, caring for FA falls under the Leukaemia Foundation.

“It is an incredibly rare disease — the rare end of rare,” Leukaemia Foundation’s Tim Murphy said.

The foundation’s Shave For A Cure fundraiser is in March.

Fanconi Anaemia Research Fund: https://www.fanconi.org/donate

Leukaemia Foundation: https://www.leukaemia.org.au

Originally published as Aussie man first to see Marvel Avengers Endgame after big campaign