The protective gauze had been removed from across her brow, Deng Yongzhen slowly opened her eyes, and saw her doctor, her son and her husband clearly.

Deng, who had suffered from a cataract since she was 12, said she could not believe it: Her sight was back, and she was freed from the blurred world she had been struggling in for the past two decades.

Her luck changed in August when Deng was the recipient of a free cataract-removal operation on a mobile medical train - the Lifeline Express.

US-based Pfizer Pharmaceutical Limited donated an artificial lens for her

"It is so nice to see everything so clearly, and that was the first time that I was able to see very clearly what my 13-year-old son looks like," the smiling Deng recalled.

Deng is a 32-year-old farmer from the poverty-stricken village of Yueliangpo in Lushi Town of Guang'an city in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Before she regained her eyesight, Deng could only fumble doing simple housework. Her husband was the family's breadwinner doing some odd jobs with an annual income of less than 2,000 yuan (US$240).

Apart from buying daily necessities, the family's money is mainly used to cover schooling for the couple's son and to support her husband's 71-year-old mother who had to stay in bed because of illness.

There was no way the family could have afforded the operation which would cost at least 2000 yuan (US$240).

Now, Deng says, she has a big plan, hoping to plant some vegetables and sell them. She is hopeful she can earn at least 1,000 yuan (US$120) for her family, she said.

A total of 45,000 cataract patients like Deng in 19 provinces have so far received operations and regained their eyesight with help of the Lifeline Express.

The Lifeline Express, launched in July 1997, is a gift for the mainland people by benevolent people from all walks of life in Hong Kong.

It is the first mobile hospital train heading to various areas of China to perform no-cost medical treatment to poverty-stricken cataract suffers, said Nellie Fong from the Impact Hong Kong Foundation, which started the program seven years ago.

According to Fong who is also the vice-chairman of a newly established China Foundation for Lifeline Express, the program has so far increased to three eye-trains.

All the surgeons working on the trains are volunteers from major hospitals in Beijing, each usually serving for three-month terms.

With advanced medical equipment on board, more than 9,000 people can be helped every year.

The work has gained support from all circles since it was founded and now more and more people are participating in this charitable work, said Zhu Qingsheng, vice-minister of Health, who is also a vice-chairman of the foundation.

Zhu said besides providing free operations to more patients, the program will also carry out professional training for local eye doctors.

Fong said that the foundation plans to set up 10 training centers by 2008 in provinces such as Yunnan, Sichuan, Hebei, as well as Guangxi Zhuang and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions.

They also plan to expand the program to Tibet Autonomous Region once the railway opens for traffic, she said.

Cataracts have become one of the major causes of blindness in China and the incidence rate is increasing because of the growth in the elderly population, said Yin Dakui, secretary-general of China Foundation for Lifeline Express.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that there are presently about 4 million cataract patients in China and every year, some 400,000 new cases are reported.

More than half of these cataract suffers live in the rural remote parts of China where poverty and limited medical care have been a hindrance to their cure.

(China Daily November 29, 2004)