Yan Caixia from Yangzhou ran every day for three months to "donate a kidney to save her son," finally bringing her triglyceride levels down and succeeding in saving him. This touching and heartwarming story spread across the country under the name of the "Running Mom." In Changzhou, a father with fatty liver is also running every day to save his son who has uremia. The cost of a kidney transplant is now the most pressing challenge facing the family. This weekend’s Care segment visits Qinye No. 1 Community.
To prepare for a successful kidney transplant, the father with fatty liver runs one hour every day
Yang Changwu and Xu Guihua are originally from Yangzhou. Twenty years ago, they came to Changzhou with their baby and settled down. The husband worked at a vegetable market, while the wife worked at a chain supermarket. After years of hard work, they finally saved enough money to buy a second-hand apartment in Qinye Xincun a few years ago. Their son is attending university in Nanjing, and life was finally looking up.
In March last year, Yang Guang was diagnosed with uremia and took leave to return to Changzhou for treatment. He had to go to the hospital for dialysis three times a week, and soon the family’s savings were depleted. Monthly mortgage payments were also a burden, and the couple considered selling their home, but Yang Guang stopped them, saying, “If you sell the house, where will you live?”
Learning that a kidney transplant was the only solution, the couple secretly went to the hospital to get tested to see if their kidneys were a match for their son. The results showed that Yang Changwu’s kidney was suitable. But Yang Guang refused the transplant outright, and the father and son had a big argument. Yang Guang said, “Just take care of yourselves. I’ll just keep doing dialysis!”
But Yang Changwu kept preparing. The doctor told him he had mild fatty liver, which could affect the surgery. So, Yang Changwu started going out for an hour-long run every day. When accompanying his son to the First People’s Hospital for dialysis, he would then run at Hongmei Park and wait until his son finished before taking him home.
Neighbors and supporters have already raised half of the 300,000 RMB in medical expenses
Many relatives took turns trying to persuade Yang Guang, but what finally changed his mind was the words of one relative: “You are the hope of your family. If something happens to you, what’s the point of your parents living? By getting a kidney transplant, your dad might not be able to do heavy work, but your future will be completely different.”
Neighbors all wanted to help Yang Guang. The community organized a rose charity sale and raised over 20,000 RMB in donations; the local street provided temporary assistance of 2,000 RMB, Xu Guihua’s supermarket donated 70,000 RMB, the Zhonglou District Charity Federation contributed 3,000 RMB, a director surnamed Qi from the Civil Affairs Bureau donated 1,000 RMB out of his own pocket, and other kind-hearted people from the community donated over 50,000 RMB. A total of 150,000 RMB in donations was raised, but the surgery costs a total of 300,000 RMB...