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Cancer-stricken seven-year-old Zhang Jiaye tugged at the heartstrings of China when she penned a letter to her dad, asking him to save their money instead of paying for her treatment.
Jiaye hails from Heilongjiang province in northeast China, where she lives in a village near Jiamusi with her father. Jiaye was diagnosed with leukemia in May 2016; her mother left last July 2017 and had not been seen since then, according to a report by news website K618.cn via South China Morning Post today.
In Jiaye’s heartbreaking letter, she tells her father she does not want to be treated anymore.
“Dad, I saw you cry today. I’m so sad. I know you’ve spent a lot of money to treat me. You’ve run out of money. Mum also left. This is all because of me,” wrote Jiaye. “If I am gone, Mum will come back and you will be happy as before. I don’t want to be treated any more. Let’s go home, shall we?”
“I felt the sky had fallen down,” said Zhang Mingliang, Jiaye’s father. But despite Jiaye’s letter, Mingliang was quoted saying his daughter would never stop fighting her illness.
No details were given as to how and when Jiaye’s letter was made public. However, donations from all over China started to pour in to help with her treatments starting September of last year; at least 600,000 yuan ($93,700) have already been donated to Jiaye. It was also reported that within just a year, Jiaye underwent 18 courses of treatment, costing 590,000 ($92,000).
Her expensive treatments have placed her family in heavy debt. Cody Cepeda/JB
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