Feature: Xinjiang girl races against disease to relay compassion

2021-August-28 09:27 By: Xinhua

URUMQI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Over the past two years, Miao Yanyan has been making preparations for her long-awaited plan -- returning the donations she got from more than 3,500 relatives, friends and strangers in 2019.

At that time, the sum totaling over 126,000 yuan (about 19,457 U.S. dollars) helped Miao, a patient suffering from a muscle-weakening disease called myasthenia gravis, and her family pull through their hardest times.

"The donors offered me a chance of survival when I was lying unconscious in the intensive care unit. Of course, I need to return their favors," the 28-year-old said in a text message interview as she lost the ability to speak due to the disease.

Earlier this month, her dream finally came true. Miao deposited the same amount of money into her account on Shuidichou, an online medical aid crowdfunding platform. Within days, the money had been returned to the donors.

Xu Sai, one of them, also a friend of Miao, said: "After receiving a refund of 1,000 yuan, I knew Miao had gotten better."

Miao was born in central China's Henan Province and grew up in a family of five in Hotan Prefecture of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where her parents eked out a living by growing dates.

Having been a straight-A student throughout her teenage years, she had hoped to study medicine or philosophy in a prestigious university before she realized that something was wrong with her.

"When I was having classes in junior high school, my vision got blurred, seeing two overlapping images. I had to cover one eye to better focus on the characters on the blackboard," she recalled.

Then her health deteriorated rapidly and her vision got blurrier. She began to mumble. She had to gulp down mouthfuls of water to swallow solid food and even sat up all night to sleep when dyspnea overtook her.

In 2009, Miao found that the pileup of symptoms had become impossible to endure, forcing her to drop out of senior high school to seek diagnosis and further treatment away from home.

Months later she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis and got admitted into a hospital in Beijing. "Although I had regrets leaving the school, I believed every step of life would lead us to our own path."

After seeing the family rustle up money for her treatment, at 21, she opened an online store to sell the dates grown by her parents. "I don't want to be a burden on them any more."

However, misfortune befell her once again -- her condition worsened. On May 21, 2019, she had difficulties breathing, a sign of respiratory failure. She turned to the manager of the hostel she stayed for help, asking him to call an ambulance before slipping into a coma.

The manager accompanied Miao to the hospital and kept an eye on her until her father came.

"During the fleeting moments of consciousness, my dad told me that they had launched a crowdfunding link on Shuidichou to help defray my medical bills amounting to over 126,000 yuan, a sum that our family couldn't bear, so I reposted it to my WeChat page," she recalled.

"A total of 3,565 individuals donated money for me and some 1,370 people reposted the link, including my friends, customers and strangers. Some of them added me on WeChat, sending me words of encouragement," she said.

Thanks to the timely help, she tided over the dangers.

However, for Miao, her condition was then the least of her worries. "I lay in the hospital bed pondering what I could do to earn enough money to repay them as early as possible."

She was back on her fruit business four days after leaving the hospital. She picked the fruits in person to guarantee its quality, communicated with customers and dealt with chores as long as her health permitted, setting aside earnings ranging from 3 yuan to 23 yuan for each order.

"Seeing the savings accumulate in my bank account was like seeing a seedling grow into a tree," she said.

It took over two years, several relapses, countless rehabilitation sessions and unremitting efforts to manage her online store until she saved enough money.

In July this year, she relapsed and sought medical care in a hospital in southwest China's Guizhou Province. She was determined to fulfill her promise because she was afraid that she would not survive another brush with death.

On August 9, after leaving the hospital, she deposited the same amount of money on the platform and submitted a refund request. So far, more than 99.6 percent of the donations have been returned to donors.

Miao sums up her philosophy: "As long as I am here, there is always a way." That is the word she lives up to. But she does more than that.

She has donated over 8,000 yuan to more than 90 disadvantaged families over the years.

"Miao is a strong girl, and compassionate. She shared her own experience with other patients and told them to be optimistic," said Kuang Shixiang, a physician from the hospital's neurology department and Miao's attending doctor.

Miao has two wishes now: to seek treatment for her father's liver cirrhosis and to develop her own business to help those in need.

"I feel I could never repay the kindness from those who had helped me. But I hope I could support other myasthenia gravis patients, funding them to see doctors and helping them get employed or start their own business, and most importantly, to start a new life," she said. Enditem

Editor: Zhang Zhou
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