The idea was simple for Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson. Take the concept of Netflix’s hit series and capitalize on the success of his most popular YouTube video of all time by expanding the idea of a real-life Squid Game into a TV game show with a $5 million prize. Donaldson broke records, and by doubling the fund to a jaw-dropping $10 million in the final episode, it was a real chance to turn someone’s life around.
After beating the other 1,998 contestants to make it to the finale, it was down to Jeffrey Randall Allen (Player 831) and Twana Barnett (Player 830). Jeff beat Twana in a game of wits, and when he successfully guessed which suitcase the money was in, he walked away $10 million richer – well, $4,970,000 once you take taxes into account.
It’s still an insane sum, and making it even more deserved, Allen is spending his money on a worthwhile cause.
Speaking to People, Allen explained how he’s using his winnings to continue research into his son’s rare genetic disease.
It was watching MrBeast videos on YouTube with 9-year-old Jack that persuaded Allen to apply to Beast Games, and the rest is history.
Allen is a father of two, and as well as Jack, there’s 7-year-old Lucas who has been diagnosed with Creatine Transporter Deficiency (CTD) when he was just two. As well as his kids being able to see their dad ‘do something super cool’, Allen wanted to raise awareness of CTD.
CTD is described as “inborn errors of creatine metabolism which interrupt the formation or transport of creatine.”
Discussing Lucas’ diagnosis, Allen said: “He was missing milestones, especially compared to his older brother. He wasn’t able to sit up the same way his older brother was. He wasn’t able to crawl as fluidly and even the way he would eat was different.”
As well as CTD being extremely rare, there’s currently no treatment or cure: “Our pediatrician had no clue. The specialist had no clue. And even once we were diagnosed, the geneticist to serve us from a premier academic institution had never seen a patient with his condition.”
This is where Allen’s Beast Games winnings come in, hoping to spur research into the disease. Allen says the ‘ultimate goal’ was to secure the prize money to hopefully change Lucas’ life: “I need to take care of him. I want to make sure he’s taken care of at home, but also, can we invest into research to help ultimately find a treatment for him and other kids like him?”
As well as being a volunteer board member of the Association for Creatine Deficiencies, Allen is keen to look at alternatives to the prognosis that Lucas will need to live with his parents forever and require constant care: “We look at how do we care for Lucas at home? And then how do we care for other Lucases around the world?”
“The last thing we want to do is put the burden on an association that doesn’t have the projects to fund.
“So our job is to help source these projects, whether they’re academic or whether they’re private. We want to invest into treatments that are gonna help Lucas and help kids like Lucas.”
Beast Games isn’t the end of the story, with Allen now rucking 365 miles from Death Valley to the California coast, “representing the 365 days a year that Lucas and other CTD kiddos suffer with this condition.”
