A 13-year-old boy in Yushu, Jilin, suffering from aplastic anemia is doing well because of public blood donations since his mother had to stop donating more than four years ago.

Wang Tieping, 46, is a laid-off worker who donated 200 milliliters of blood every month for six years. She saw it as the only way to prolong her son's life because she couldn't afford any more treatments for him after her husband died of cancer.

But the donations damaged her health, and she had to stop in early 2003. Local media printed the story of Wang and her son, and since then, public donations have helped keep him healthy.

(China Daily March 9, 2007)