"The thickness of your wallet determines the length of your life." In the hematology ward, this is a phrase often heard. For many patients from ordinary rural families, the exorbitant costs of treating blood disorders are a painfully real burden.
From Rural Youth to Graduate Student: Life Trajectory Altered by Acute Leukemia
This New Year's Day, tragedy struck 29-year-old Li Shen (pseudonym).
Hailing from Shandong, both he and his wife Xiaohui earned master's degrees after leaving their rural hometowns. After graduation, Li Shen joined a state-owned enterprise managing project implementation, while Xiaohui became a technician. They married happily and soon welcomed an adorable son.In March 2019, the couple purchased their own home. To cover the monthly mortgage payments exceeding 6,000 yuan, they worked even harder. Li Shen spent most of his time traveling for business, while Xiao Hui took on part-time work at a restaurant downstairs after her regular job and tutored at an education center on weekends.
The Li family before illness
On January 1st this year, while in Qingyuan, Guangzhou, Li Shen suddenly felt dizzy and weak. Hospital tests revealed critically low platelet counts, raising suspicion of leukemia. Doctors immediately admitted him, but Li Shen insisted on returning home. Back in Shandong, they sought examination at Qilu Hospital. Results came swiftly: acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
After diagnosis, Li Shen's condition deteriorated rapidly, necessitating a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately, he and his mother were a match. Upon learning her marrow could save her son, the elderly woman exclaimed emotionally, "Even if it means trading one life for another, I wouldn't regret it!"
In March, Li Shen underwent the transplant at Yanda Ludaopei Hospital in Hebei. During his illness, the 1.78-meter-tall man had wasted away to 105 jin (52.2 kg). From diagnosis to recovery and through the rejection phase, their medical expenses have now reached nearly one million yuan—often accumulating new debts before old ones could be repaid.
On the 23rd day after leaving isolation, Li Shen suffered severe rejection symptoms: skin rejection, intestinal rejection, and cystitis struck one after another. His limbs swelled, his body itched relentlessly, and his abdomen cramped painfully—prompting the Shandong native to shed his first tears since falling ill.While illness tormented Li Shen, Xiao Hui faced a different kind of agony: they say transplants have a price, but rejection has no cost. Without money, how could she cure her husband's illness...?
To raise funds, Li Shen's father—who had undergone brain tumor surgery—dragged his sick body to work on construction sites. Their 4-year-old son, Xinxin, though too young to fully understand, knew his father was gravely ill. He often told his mother:I won't buy toys anymore. Let's save all the money for Dad's treatment."
High school senior misses college entrance exam from hospital bed: "I still want to return to class"
Eighteen-year-old leukemia patient Sha Saidan bears the same burden.
From a single-parent family in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, she lives with her mother and older sister. To support both children's education, her mother toils year-round as a farmer, leaving the household financially strained.With her older sister having graduated from university and Sha Saidan set to take the college entrance exam this year, life seemed to be moving in a positive direction. Yet all hope was shattered by a single diagnosis. Sha Saidan in her hospital bed In April this year, shortly after returning to school following the pandemic, Sha Saidan was isolated during routine temperature checks due to elevated readings. After undergoing a series of tests at the hospital, doctors suspected leukemia.Her mother immediately took her to Tianjin for a bone marrow biopsy, where she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This devastating news left both her mother and sister utterly distraught. Though struggling to accept it, they promptly brought Shasidan to Jilin for treatment. After four months and 150,000 yuan in medical expenses, the bone marrow test still showed 0.44% cancer cells, and doctors declared chemotherapy ineffective.Refusing to give up, her mother and sister sought advice and brought Shadai to Beijing Borun Hospital in August. The doctors proposed a treatment plan involving CAR-T therapy followed by a bone marrow transplant, costing 650,000 yuan.
Faced with this enormous financial gap, her mother and sister once again fell into deep despair.
Both Xiaohui, who was saving her husband, and Shadai, who was saving her daughter, turned to Shuidichou for help.
Sashidan's sister launched a fundraising campaign for her on Shuidichou, garnering widespread attention from netizens and quickly raising 250,000 yuan. The China Social Welfare Foundation partnered with Shuidichou Charity to initiate a charitable donation drive for Sashidan. Nearly 20,000 netizens contributed their love, raising 400,000 yuan overnight, enabling Sashidan's transplant surgery to proceed smoothly.
Xiaohui also sought society's compassion to give Li Shenbo a glimmer of hope. Leveraging Shuidichou's dual platform advantage of "personal appeals + public fundraising," over 16,000 people have extended aid to date, raising more than 260,000 yuan in compassionate treatment funds to alleviate their immediate hardship.
A research report released by the China Red Cross Foundation indicates that approximately 40,000 new leukemia cases emerge nationwide each year, half of which are children. Over 75% of these patients come from rural areas. Treatment costs, often ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan, prevent many financially struggling families from accessing timely care.
Shuidichou recently released data on the top ten diseases supported by its platform. Leukemia ranks third in the number of fundraising projects, accounting for 4.4% of all cases. It also holds the highest average fundraising amount, with patients raising a cumulative total of 3.12 billion yuan through the platform.
Growing data indicates that online crowdfunding platforms like Shuidichou are becoming an indispensable force in supporting leukemia patients facing financial hardship. Here, they find renewed hope after despair.