27 juniors of Southwest Jiaotong University sold hand-made T-shirts on the streets of Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday, in order to collect money for the treatment of their teacher who caught leukemia one year ago.

 

 

A picture (Center) of Feng Bin, a graphic design teacher at the Southwest Jiaotong University, and pictures of her students collecting money to cure her leukemia in this undated photo.

 

Local newspaper, Chengdu Daily reports, Feng Bin, a teacher of graphic design, was diagnosed with acute leukemia in April 2006. Her hospitalization expenses were estimated to be 600,000 yuan, or about US$75,000, which the 28-year old teacher could hardly afford.

 

When the 27 students in Feng Bin's class heard the news, they started a campus campaign to collect money. More than 40,000 students and faculty members of the Southwest Jiaotong University donated about 70,000 yuan, or US$8,500 in a month.

 

With the donations, Feng Bin's first-year of treatment, which cost about 240,000 yuan (about US$30,000), went smoothly.

 

However, the only hope for Feng Bin's survival lies in marrow transplantation. The surgery is planed to be carried out in 20 days, but she still hasn't scraped together enough money to pay for it.

 

The students then set up a second initiative to make use of their graphic design major and turn to the society for help.

 

The students chipped in 1,000 yuan to buy some T-shirts and spent two days drawing on them.

 

The T-shirts were sold at 50 yuan each in a leisure street where tourists gather. The students were delighted that they raised 5,100 yuan in the first day.

 

"When the tourists hear that we are raising funds to rescue our teacher, they usually make purchases without any hesitation. They also ask us to give their wishes to our teacher," one of the students said.

 

"The T-shirt will be a precious souvenir for my Chengdu tour," said Mr. Wu, a tourist from east China's Jiangsu Province who bought a T-shirt.

 

 

Students draw on and sell T-shirts to collect money for their teacher Feng Bin who caught leukemia.

 

 

Students sell hand-drawn T-shirts to collect money for their teacher Feng Bin who caught leukemia.

 

(CRI June 4, 2007)