Cash-Strapped Cancer Dad Stops Treatment To Pay For Kid

Story BySimon GloverSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyAsia Wire Report

A dad battling lung cancer refused treatment when he learned his daughter had also been diagnosed with cancer as he could not afford to pay for treatment for them both.

Sun Ying, 21, an art student at Henan Normal University in the city of Xinxiang in central China’s Henan Province, is still fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but her father died in December 2015.

Sun knows her father, whose name is not reported, effectively gave up his life for hers and says she is determined to beat the disease and live a life of which he would be proud.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire/Sun Ying

She said: “My superhero left this world and the world is not as colourful as before. From now on, I should constrain my wilfulness and weakness and must be independent and strong.”

Sun, who is studying oil painting, uses her artistic talent to illustrate her diaries in which she tries to maintain a light tone despite the serious nature of her illness to help stay positive.

Her university posted them on the Weibo social media platform in an appeal for donations after her family finally ran out of money to pay for her treatment. 

It has now issued a public thank you after reaching its target of 200,000 RMB (22,400 GBP.

Sun was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s in April 2015 as she was preparing for her university entrance examination after finishing high school.

She said she had been close to death on a number of occasions but had survived and added: “I hope this world loves me more. Please help me. I truly want to live on.”

Sun, who has undergone 30 courses of chemotherapy and 20 of radiotherapy, only to suffer three relapses of her illness, says she will continue updating her diaries.

Her fellow students and lecturers were initially unaware of her illness as she kept it a secret, only going to hospital for treatment at weekends, but as she started wearing a wig to cover her hair loss they began to suspect.

The truth finally came out when Sun had to ask the university to put her studies on hold until her health improved.

Sun’s diaries have prompted thousands of comments on Weibo, many of them from cancer sufferers. One anonymous netizen said: “Sun’s father is great! Only parents will make this sacrifice.”