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19-year-old girl with leukemia draws comics to record her story

(People's Daily Online)    10:48, March 23, 2015
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Yang Meng posts online: "Didn't realize how good I look with long hair until I put on a wig. Hope I can finally get better and grow my hair long." (Huaxi City Daily/Zhang Yuanling, Wang Guoping)

3 years and 20 chemos have come and gone since she was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 16. But Yang Meng refuses to give up, and has even started to produce comics telling the story of her struggle against cancer. She calls them "Baozi's anti-cancer journal".

It was the second day after her high school entrance exam, when Yang Meng found a lump on her neck. First they thought it was just an inflammation, but after a week the lump was showing no sign of fading, and another lump had developed under her arm. Yang Meng was finally diagnosed with leukemia.

Her family was devastated. Her parents sold their house, and borrowed money from friends. To date they have spent almost 930,000 yuan to provide for Yang Meng. The whole family moved to Beijing in search of better medical treatment.

"It was really a shame that I couldn't go to high school, even though I made it to my ideal one," says Yang Meng. "I once hoped that I could grow my hair long and wear beautiful clothes like other teenage girls. But now I just want to live. I don’t want to just give up."

"Whenever you start thinking about doing something, just do it right away." This is one of Yang Meng's mottos. She liked drawing when she was little, but under the pressure of her studies, she had to give it up. Now she has taken up her favorite hobby again, using comics to record her experience of fighting leukemia.

As well as using the comics as her own "journal", Yang Meng also draws "tutorials" for her parents. Worried that they knew nothing about the Internet, she began to draw tutorials for them explaining how to buy tickets online, how to do online shopping, how to use Wechat, etc. "I want to leave something from my last days, especially for my parents - something they can use to remember me after I'm gone," she says.

Yang said she was deeply moved by a Japanese movie named "Good-bye for Today." Inspired by the movie, she decided to make a "Good-bye for Today" video game. In the game the player has leukemia, and must decide different paths to cure the disease. Yang Meng hopes that anyone who plays the game will be able to let go of any unhappiness in their daily life. "To live is the most beautiful thing for anyone who is alive," she says.

Yang Meng's courage has touched many Chinese netizens.

This article is edited and translated from 《四川19岁白血病女孩 漫画记录抗癌生活》,source: Huaxi City Daily, authro: Zhang Yuanling, Wang Guoping


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