Overcoming difficulties to chase her dreams

Sitting in a corner of the classroom, ponytailed Chen Yingxin attended the last Chinese class before the national college entrance exam, or Gaokao, which was held on July 7 and 8 this year.

Her slightly swollen feet rested on her wheelchair peddles, with her thin legs under her loose trousers.

Paralyzed since the age of 5,Chen, a 19-year-old student of the Fuzhou Foreign Language School in East China's Fujian province, has persisted with her studies and dreams with support from her family and friends. The college entrance exam was yet another milestone in her quest.

Last year, Chen obtained a German language certificate known as DSD II, with which she can apply for universities in Germany if she gets the right grade in this year's Gaokao. She wants to learn translation in university.

Chen's lower limbs were paralyzed in an accident. Since then, she has suffered from bedsores, which are ulcers on the skin caused by pressure from prolonged bed rest or sitting in a wheelchair.

"The years in high school have been the hardest of my life," she says. "I've spent over half of them in hospital, unable to attend classes in person."

In the past three years, Chen had undergone five bedsore surgeries. She even had to take one year off to stay in the hospital for treatment.

Chen watched livestreaming classes on her smartphone while being confined to her hospital bed. A camera was set on the classroom lectern to disseminate live feeds.

Because of bedsores, she had to lie on her belly when having classes or doing homework. Her elbows were always covered in bruises as she needed to prop herself up with them.

Her father Chen Yong says:"She has never cried in front of the family, but I know she wept when no one was around, every time after surgery."

Chen Yong quit his job to take care of his daughter after she was paralyzed. Her high school offered him a job in the library so he could better attend to his daughter.

Despite the enormous challenge of dealing with both her physical condition and the academic pressure, both father and daughter agreed that quitting her studies would disappoint those who had helped them.

During her junior high school, every morning Chen's classmates took turns to pick her up and push her to the classroom in the wheelchair. Her former school building did not have an elevator, so her male friends used to carry her and the wheelchair upstairs in their arms.

"She performs well in school," says Chen Wensheng, the dean of Chen Yingxin's grade. "I can feel her unswerving determination, although she never talks much."

Chen Yingxin's family and teachers all have noticed that the once-outgoing girl has become reticent in recent years. Her father attributes the situation to repeated relapse of her bedsores.

Instead of talking, Chen resorted to writing to relieve her stress and pain.

"Writing has given me spiritual support," she says. "When I am overwhelmed by melancholy and sadness, I rid myself of those feelings by expressing my thoughts through writing."

She had co-authored a book about school life, and won awards for her writing. She hoped that one day she could be like Yang Jiang, a well-known female writer and translator in China.

Her most recent plan is to write a novel based on her life, hoping that her story will give people strength and draw attention to patients with spinal cord injuries. Her family is very supportive of her plans.

"I hope she will have the skills to support her life, and that one day she can live independently and take care of herself," Chen Yong says.