On August 4, 2001, over 700 cancer patients in Shenyang linked their life commitments to the Olympic Five Rings. They promised to open their locks only in 2008 in Beijing for the Olympics. Ultimately, more than 300 survivors honored their commitments on July 23, 2008. Over the past seven years, what type of Olympic life journey did they go through? How did the Olympic spirit encourage them to continue fighting cancer for over 2,000 days? Anti-cancer Stars including Wang Yunrong and Yan Zhongjian interpreted the Olympic slogan, Faster, Higher and Stronger, in their own way: swifter recovery, greater confidence and stronger vitality.
Linking Their Lives
I have won, I have won the 10-year-long anti-cancer battle. My fellow patients, your attention please, I am here to announce that my next 10 years of fighting cancer begins now, said Wang Yunrong, raising high her Lock No. 398. The 61-year-old lady then danced joyfully to Girls of Ali Mountain, blissfully oblivious to all those gathered around her.
I never imagined I would make it, but I have finally unlocked my life, cried Chen Guiqing, shaking her Lock No. 140 and telling anyone she met. It's so good to be alive, good to be alive, Yang Xueyu said, blessing other fellow cancer patients including herself.
Yan Zhongjian kissed his Lock No. 142 and murmured to himself....
Cancer patients linked their Locks of Life to the Olympic Five Rings on August 4, 2001. Then on July 23, 2008, at the Qinqiu Cancer Research Institute, over 30 survivors opened their Locks of Life with the keys they had kept for seven years. A five-meter-long banner with the Olympics for Life Meeting in Beijing 2008, Cancer Patients Support the Olympic bid, displayed the password to the Locks on 10 March 2001.... Though unfortunate, we have not surrendered to cancer and we agreed to greet the Olympics with our lives!?Beijing awaits me!? The whole country spared no effort to win the bid for the Olympics at that time.
On that day of the declaration of Beijing's bid for the Olympics, a sunny day after a snowfall, more than 500 people gathered in the square at Zhongshan Park to solemnly sign the banner, demonstrating their full support for the Olympic campaign. Instead of rushing to sign like others, Wang Yunrong had tried to find a red marker and the perfect location to sign. Actually, she was still calculating whether her life expectancy would even meet the big event. If not, she still hoped her family would be able to easily identify her name. Then people sang together, Enter into the New Times. The name of the song actually implied that those people shadowed by cancer desired to live well into the 21st century.
Wang Yung hummed the tune while thinking about the turns for cancer patients, living three more years means you pass a small test, and five years means a big test. She had already passed the small test, when she had not been sure if she would live beyond 2006 now this was a big test for her. If she could not make it, she definitely would miss the Olympics. She became quite frustrated just thinking about it.
