Liang Liang fund set up for tots with leukaemia
By Li Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-04 05:37

They live on each side of the Pacific Ocean and they have never met before, but two fathers have embraced with a common aim - to save Liang Liang, a boy with leukaemia.

The fathers, one Chinese, the other American, do not understand each other's language, but tongues are not needed to understand what they have in common - sons struck down by this blood disease.

Sun Jing is the father of Liang Liang, a 14-year-old boy who was diagnosed with leukaemia two years ago.

A poor farmer from Shandong Province whose family earns just 1,000 yuan (US$120) a month, Sun tried to kill himself so his organs could be sold to raise money for his son.

Fortunately he was saved, despite taking 48 sleeping pills, and among the people moved by his plight was Bernard Hicks.

Hicks set up Baby Cancer Foundation in the United States in 2000 following the death of his own son at just 19 months old.

Hicks, who is on a business trip in China, met Sun on Saturday afternoon in Beijing, with officials of the Chinese Red Cross Foundation (CRCF), which set up the "Little Angel" Fund to help poor children with leukaemia.

Hearing that Liang Liang's treatment would cost at least 400,000 yuan (US$48,000), Hicks has pledged to try and raise US$50,000 in the United States. He has called it the "Liang Liang Fund. "

Hicks' business partner, Summer Xia, chairman of the Chinese Branch of the Aerobics & Fitness Association of America, said he would donate US$1,000 and his association would also help raise money.

Hicks also expressed his willingness to work with CRCF to promote the Little Angel Fund for the long term, to help more Chinese children with leukaemia.

(China Daily 07/04/2005 page3)

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