Li Na in treatment. (Photo/Sina Weibo)

Li Na in treatment. (Photo/Sina Weibo)

Li Na's Grandfather and her mother both passed away in the space of two years.

Li Na said that when she was 12 she came back from hospital with a leg missing, and had to sit in a wheel chair. Her father Li Yongli explains that the amputation devastated Na's mother; she did not even come to see Li Na for a week after the surgery. Li Na suggests that it was perhaps her amputation that caused her mother's illness. After the surgery her mother often fell ill; later she was confirmed as suffering from lupus erythematosus. She died in 2012.

Li's grandmother said after Li came back from the hospital, everyone in the family had to work to pay off the debts. Last year, everything was finally paid off, but Li Na's grandfather passed away.

After the amputation, Li Na was given an artificial leg. In 2008 she became a member of the table tennis team in Shaanxi province, and in 2009 she won a gold medal and the title of excellent athlete at the Shaanxi Paralympic Games. Later she went to a vocational high school and after she graduated, she spent a year and half training in archery. She started working in an advertising company this year.