Like all babies blessed by their parents, Weiwei, a two and a half year old Chinese boy is once the joy and happiness to his parents. With a glittering pair of eyes and soft curly hair, he looks like an character coming from your favourite cartoon books.
It is not until his 17th month routine check did the doctor noticed that Weiwei’s eyes are not functioning well. Further investigation has confirmed that he has no vision on the left eye. This is just the beginning of the ordeal to his parents. Thorough medical check shows that Weiwei has tumor developed in both of his eyes. The left eye was blind since birth while the right eye has fair vision but is prone to deterioration in near future. Without immediate surgery to prevent the eye tumor from growing and bleeding, Weiwei might lose his life to cancer.
From Weiwei’s birth place Suzhou, to the cities hold world-class eye treatment facilities such as Shanghai and Beijing, the family has since started their journey to battle this rare cancer called Retinoblastoma that only happens once in 200,000 people all over the world.
After a series chemotherapy to 18 months Weiwei for almost six month, doctors told the parents that the result was not as planned. The only choice to save his life is to remove the left eye. The eyes once was the parents’ ultimate pride now is the endless nightmare, not even mentioning many sleepless nights they have to go through to take care of Weiwei who suffered from chemo side effects such as nausea, vomiting, mouth sores and mucositis (the swelling, irritation and ulceration of the cells that line the digestive tract).
Weiwei’s left eye was removed when he was almost two years old last November, the time the little boy started to soothe his mother, Ping Yan to not worry about him outside the surgery room. He has since implanted an artificial eye, although the little boy still has yet to learn how to blink on the left side.
Coming alone the pains is the hefty medical expenses Weiwei’s family is facing. Ping Yan has since quit her job and become a fulltime mom to look after Weiwei while the father took a maximum medical leave, accompanying the family to Toronto until June when he has to get back to work to make ends meet.
The family was referred to Toronto’s SickKids’ Hospital in hoping to save Weiwei’s right eye. The estimate to first stage treatment is at a cost of CDN 100,000, a price tag the family hasn’t hesitate to sell their Suzhou apartment to pay for. Weiwei and Pingyan came here in February with nothing but hope, thinking that they will be back home soon cancer free.
Unfortunately, Weiwei’s treatment was not successful four months later. It is a challenge doctors from SickKids’ Hospital didn’t expect initially. Further treatment may involve more high dose chemotherapy neither Weiwei’s tiny body can handle, nor the family’s bank account can pay for. They have used up all money they can get from their source and yet, more medical bills are piling up with no certainty to save Weiwei’s eye.
Facing all the hardship when battling this cancer alone, the persistent mother Ping Yan finally stepped forward and asked public help through local Chinese community media. The support is coming back huge. A youtube short video made for the donation has received more than 1,400 clicks in five days. All three major Chinese online communities 51.ca, yorkbbs.ca and rolia.net have people launched fundraising campaign for Weiwei. As help is pouring from the Chinese community, more volunteers are working hard to approach other communities to save Weiwei’s right eye.
If you are a mother or you feel for a mother who is saving her ailing child at any cost, please kindly send your donation to Weiwei. Ping Yan’s bank account information is:
Bank of China (Canada)
Toronto Downtown Branch
Transit No. 00022
Institution No. 308
Account No. 04019935
Name: Ping Yan
Or you can send her a cheque:
240 McCaul Street, unit 319, Toronto M5T 1W5
Payable to: Ping Yan
Thank you very much and may God bless Weiwei!