Medical Fund for Needy Chinese Children

Dear Donor,

In this quarterly report, we wanted to share with you the story of Haobo. A Life A Time has been following the progress of this child for the past year, and helping Haobo and his family is a great example of the many cases A Life A Time takes on to help children with medical needs in China.

Haobo, born in June 2011, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma when he was a year and a half old.  To try to save his eyes, his parents took him to Beijing Tongren Hospital and hoped that through chemotherapy, Haobo’s eyes could be saved. Unfortunately, despite all the pain the child went through, his left eye was removed in January 2014 and he still had to receive chemotherapy treatments to prevent the disease from spreading to his right eye.

Haobo received a total of 15 chemotherapy treatments and seven interventional therapies over three years. Unfortunately, his right eye showed signs of the disease spreading and was removed in February 2016.

Over the last 4 years, his family has used up all of their savings and borrowings to try to save their child. Both parents continue to pick up short-term jobs while still needing to care for Haobo and his older brother.

After Haobo lost both his eyes, his parents thought things had finally come under control and they started to focus on helping him recover. In October 2016, his parents noticed one of his feet started to swell and Haobo was in a lot of pain. At first, doctors at the local hospital thought Haobo had fractured his foot. After a few months of treatments, Haobo’s condition got worse and he was unable to walk anymore. Following that, two lumps developed under his armpit and thigh. At the time, it was confirmed that the disease again had spread.

Haobo is now back at Beijing Tongren Hospital. Currently, he can’t walk because of the pain. The child’s doctor suggests there is hope for Haobo to recover and prescribed a one-year treatment period with once-a-month chemotherapy.  His doctor also strongly recommends that the treatments should not be interfered with or the child’s body could start to develop resistance to the medicine. The family can no longer afford the medical expenses, which are estimated at RMB 400,000 (approx. USD $58,055), including chemotherapy costs of RMB 15,000 (USD $2,177) per session, RMB 12,000 – RMB 15,000 each time for platelet transfusion following the chemo therapy, and other needed prescriptions and treatments.

His parents are seeking every possible means to raise money to support Haobo’s treatments. They also visited China Women’s Federation, The Civil Affairs Bureau, and State Bureau for Letters and Calls, hoping they can raise awareness at these government agencies and receive some support.

A Life A Time Foundation transferred $1,564.06 to the hospital to cover medical expenses on March 12016. In addition, between March 1, 2016 and February 25, 2017, we also received donations of $3,419.28 that were designated to Haobo, all of which have already been used for the child’s medical-related expenses.

We are hoping we can help raise more donations for this child. You can either donate through our Globalgiving platform (please note if you want the donation to be designated for Haobo) or at Haobo’s donation site on A Life A Time Foundation website: http://www.alifeatime.org/cn/children/story.aspx?id=896&type=#activity.

A Life A Time maintains updates on each child we have helped on our website. Please visit our website if you’d like to know more about Haobo. We will also continue to post his progress for our donors. 

Sincerely,

A Life A Time Foundation