Leukemia children put caps on the bald volunteers at the scene. The volunteers appeal to citizens to participate in the action. In the afternoon of November 13, a group of young people came to Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street in the provincial capital. More than a hundred volunteers voluntarily shaved their heads to encourage leukemia children who lost their hair due to chemotherapy. The volunteers regularly go to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (hereinafter referred to as AMU Second Affiliated Hospital) to lead the children there suffering from leukemia to read and play games.
Since chemotherapy, many leukemia children are bald, and the strange looks make them very uncomfortable. In order to encourage the children and call for more people to pay attention to them, under the strong support of Luxiang Street in Luyang District, the Anhui Province Life Little Warrior Association composed of five university volunteers carried out this activity.
An unprecedented "ribbon-cutting"
A simple stage, the bald heads and smiling faces of one by one leukemia children, and a group of busy figures constitute a picture of love. On November 13, more than a hundred volunteers from five universities gathered together. They will deliver hope to leukemia children in the form of "dispersed hair."
The event began with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony which was unprecedented. The ribbon-cutting guest was a five-year-old girl named Xiao Xiao. She is a leukemia recovery child. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with leukemia and moved into AMU Second Affiliated Hospital with her mother. During the three years, under the care of the hospital, society, and volunteers, Xiao Xiao defeated the disease, and her fallen hair grew back. Her ribbon-cutting object was not a ribbon but the hair of a university volunteer named Wang Hao. He is both a volunteer who volunteered to shave his head and the organizer of this event, coming from Hefei University of Technology.
Under the escort of adults, Xiao Xiao held a long pair of scissors and reached towards Wang Hao's head, lightly cutting the black hair slowly falling. Touching his uneven hair, Wang Hao revealed his most brilliant smile.
Female volunteers shave their heads, and girls send her flowers
Wang Hao touched his smooth head and scratched his ears shyly, saying, "It feels pretty good." As one of the organizers of this event, he expressed his previous concerns.
"This event was initiated by Li Nianyi, and the volunteers from the five major universities - University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University, Medical University, and Agricultural University - responded enthusiastically." Earlier, they had launched multiple activities on campus, but asking volunteers to shave their heads made them feel a bit guilty. "We were afraid that no one would participate." However, the result was far beyond expectation. "More than a hundred volunteers signed up, including some female students."
Zhou Siyi is one of the female students, a sophomore in the Physics Department of the University of Science and Technology of China, with a head of jet-black hair, curled, and well-groomed. This jet-black hair is about to fall, and Zhou Siyi quietly touched it again.
"I can't do anything else for the children; this is my contribution." She softly told the reporter that she didn't have the courage to be a bald girl either. After shaving her hair, she would wear a hat and wait for her hair to grow back. "Hair will grow back after being cut, but once life is gone, it can never return. Shaving a bald head for leukemia children is very meaningful."
After shaving her hair, she received an unexpected reward. In the crowd, a strange girl approached her and gave her a bouquet of carnations, praising her with a thumbs-up, "Very brave, good job." Before Zhou Siyi could react, the girl had disappeared into the crowd.
An unusual haircut
Once the haircuts started, the volunteers went up one batch after another. At the scene, besides the volunteers, the barbers were also busy.
Through the prior contact of the volunteers, six barbers came to the scene, and more than a hundred volunteers had signed up for haircuts. There were still people signing up on-site, meaning that each barber would shave the heads of more than ten people on average.
Xiao Chen, 28 years old, has been working in the hairdressing industry for five years and is currently working as a stylist in a hair salon on the pedestrian street.
That day was Sunday, the busiest time in the store, making it difficult to leave, but this event made him ignore all that, plus the support of his boss, he arrived at the scene early. "I've been doing haircuts for five years, shaved quite a few bald heads, but today's experience is completely different."
Xiao Chen told a touching story, "One of my best friends lived with me, we played together since childhood, went to elementary school and junior high school together, later he got leukemia and passed away." Speaking of this, he blinked hard, trying to control his tears, "Now medical conditions have improved, I hope these children with leukemia can be strong and move forward."
The groom considers this as a wedding gift
On the stage, one by one volunteer was shaved bald, and down below, many passers-by stopped to watch, layer upon layer. They applauded emotionally from time to time and shouted "cheer up" occasionally. Mobile phones, cameras, and camcorders were all used to record such unforgettable moments.
"Excuse me, please let me through." A young woman with long hair kept finding angles to shoot with a DV camera. It turned out she was shooting her boyfriend on the stage, who was actually her fiancé, "Our wedding is scheduled for next year's first lunar month." The fiancé on the stage also spoke up, "Sorry, I need to catch the five o'clock flight, so I'm going to cut in line for a haircut."
The fiancé's name is Yu Hang, who graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China two years ago and currently works in Beijing. This time, he returned home with his fiancée and accidentally encountered this event, so he signed up without hesitation.
The fiancée's name is Xu Ming, she told the reporter that although she expected her fiancé's hair to be very short when they got married, "I don't think it will affect the beauty, instead, it will bring a different significance to our wedding, this is a special big gift."
Singing father and son donate a day's hard-earned money
A donation box was placed at the scene, and the box opening was always busy. Coins, banknotes, whole money, loose change, continuously fell in. Men, women, strangers came and went quickly. An elderly man led a blind young man, the young man had a guitar on his back and a microphone in his hand. The two men walked over tremblingly. The two men took out the money in their pockets, fifty cents, one dollar, five dollars... They neatly stacked them, struggled to put them into the donation box, and then left. The volunteers were momentarily stunned, "Judging by their appearance, their lives are also difficult, but they still have this heart, we feel a bit sad inside."
After interviewing, the reporter learned that this was a father and son. The father's name is Wan Changjiang, from Jiangxi province, 60 years old this year, and the son is 18 years old. Due to an accident when he was a child, he became blind. The father sold his property to treat his son for a long time. To raise money, the father acted as his son's eyes, guiding his way, and the two of them lived by singing. These thirty yuan were what they earned today, "They save lives, they need it more than us."
After donating the money, they continued to sing. Wan Changjiang said they would send the money over when they earn more.
Fierce beasts can also become little lambs
In the afternoon, Dr. Wang Ningling, the chief physician of AMU Second Affiliated Hospital, also came to the scene. For many years, she has been on the front line of treating children with leukemia. Currently, there are more than two hundred children with leukemia in the hospital. Once at the scene, she pointed at the children on the poster and called out their names one by one: Zhao Yirui, Ding Li, Bai Sha Chao... These children have already been discharged from the hospital, but she still remembers them clearly.
Standing on the stage, she loudly told everyone, "Childhood leukemia is not a fierce beast, it can be cured." She said that she came to the scene today to eliminate everyone's misunderstanding. Many people think that leukemia is a genetic disease or an infectious disease, which is wrong. Especially in summer, when children with leukemia wearing masks and having bald heads walk on the street, people around them always avoid them.
She said that although childhood leukemia is a malignant tumor, most of them can be cured through chemotherapy, only a small number need bone marrow transplants.
However, once someone gets this disease, it brings invisible pressure to the child's family and social misunderstanding and discrimination. Moreover, the economic pressure becomes their greatest fear, treating leukemia costs hundreds of thousands of yuan...
Regarding the activities of the volunteers, she has always supported them. Meanwhile, she conveyed to the reporter that the children in the hospital were also moved and wanted to come to the scene, but they were persuaded by the doctors for fear of infection.
In general, if there is no recurrence within five years, it can be declared completely cured. Over the years, many children with leukemia have stopped taking medicine and been discharged from the hospital.
As the volunteers said, fierce beasts are not terrible, as long as there is love, they can be turned into little lambs.
Qi Wu, Intern Zhang Yujie
This article is written by our reporter Ju Yuanyuan and photographed by Gao Bo. Share to: Welcome to post comments, I want to comment, Weibo recommendation | Today's Weibo hot topics