Xiaofeng (Photo/Beijing Youth Daily)

A man from Huai’an, eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has been keeping a diary for his son, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2014, for five years.

The man, Song Jieshu, told Beijing Youth Daily that he has recorded a total of 1.22 million Chinese characters so far, and the diary is a constant reminder for him that his son is still with him.

He hopes that his son can recover as soon as possible and read the diary one day.

Most of the contents of the diary are about the diet and treatment for his son, nicknamed Xiaofeng. He also records details of his son’s daily life. For instance, on Xiaofeng’s birthday, he wrote about his worry when his son had taken a piece of sugary cake, something that a blood cancer patient is not supposed to eat, as well as the experience of Xiaofeng making a watermelon lamp.

After Xiaofeng’s diagnosis, Song quit his job at a Shanghai-based company, where he had been working for eight years, and returned to his hometown to take care of him.

Two years ago, Song went back to Shanghai to work, as Xiaofeng’s condition had stabilized. According to him, his wife records Xiaofeng’s daily life in a notebook and then sends it to him through pictures, and he records all the information in his diary at the end of the day.

He said that he has been doing this every day without exception ever since Xiaofeng was diagnosed.

He explained that parents of children with blood cancer suffer a lot. “It was easy for me to start this diary, as I feel that I’m with my son by doing this every day,” he said, adding that he hopes Xiaofeng will be able to read it in the future to learn about the efforts his family made to help him get through the disease.