ADAMSTOWN, Pa. — For sisters Shirley and Sarah Shirey, life hasn’t been easy.
Shirley, 33, was born with down syndrome and developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a baby.
“She’s pretty much been in a wheelchair her whole life," said the girls' mother, Sherry Shirey.
A few years later, her sister Sarah, now 28, was born with an unknown syndrome that affects her limbs.
She has a cyst on her brain and was also born deaf and blind.
Doctors didn’t expect her to live once she was delivered.
“She was not even supposed to breathe," said Sherry. " [But] here she is, 28 years old and doing great.”
Sarah miraculously developed some vision over time and now wears hearing aids.
“I can’t do everything other people can do but some things I can do and other things I can do but have to do differently, and [it's the] same thing with my sister," Sarah explained.
Because of their health issues, the girls spend a lot of time inside their Adamstown home.
A few months ago, their aunt introduced them to a video game called "Pac-Man 99."
The girls grasped the game quickly and found it was one of the first games they could both physically play and excel at.
“There’s some games in other formats that we can play, but not this well," said Sarah.
“There was really never much they could compete in [growing up], and here they are competing and it's wonderful," said Sherry.
Both Sarah and Shirley quickly became apart of the game's online live streaming community—their “Pac-Family” as they call it.
“It’s a really tight-knit community and we’re really blessed to be a part of it," Sarah exclaimed. "We’ve never encountered anybody mean on here.”
The sisters regularly log on through the platform Twitch to play with other people from all over the world.
“There’s so many times I cry [watching them]," said Sherry. "I mean the people are so nice and sometimes Sarah will be like ‘Such and such just texted this to me’ and it touches my heart.”
The game is a battle-royale spin on the classic arcade game.
It's currently available for Nintendo Switch Online members to download for free through the gaming system's online store.
But it might not be there much longer.
“Some of the streamers we were playing with, got the news first then our aunt had to break the news to us when she heard about it that they are pulling the game off the online format," said Sarah.
The game is set to be discontinued and taken off the online store on October 8 of this year.
It's news that’s hard to hear for the Shirey family.
“This has meant the world to us and when my sister told me they were taking it away, I still cry even now about it," Sherry said, holding back tears.
But Sarah and Shirley, or ET27 and LittleBell, as they’re known online, aren’t going down without a fight.
Sarah posted a video on YouTube pleading her case to the game’s manufacturer, Bandai Namco.
“Even with our disabilities, we’ve learned to cope with what abilities we do have and this game is an ability I do have, and so does my sister," she said in the video.
The sisters want the company to reconsider and realize just how important the game is to their family and so many others.
"A lot of big companies just think about making games and selling them and making their money but where’s the humanity, where’s the decency for people like us who actually enjoy the games and do really well with them?” Sarah said.
An online petition is now circulating, thanks again to Sarah.
Sherry says she has seen miracles with her daughters already, and is just hoping for another.
“Everyone so far has been saying ‘There’s nothing you can do, once a big company makes those decisions, there’s nothing that can be done’ but I’m hoping this time it won’t be true," she explained.
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