A grandfather’s love for his family has inspired many after he found an unusual way to help his grandson. At the age of 75, he became a beauty influencer to raise money for the child’s treatment, showing how far he was willing to go for his family, reported the South China Morning Post.
Zhu Yunchang, from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, became a beauty influencer to raise money for his nine-year-old grandson Cao Jingyan, who has a rare disease. Zhu looks after Jingyan during the day and live-streams at night, often continuing his broadcasts until midnight while his wife stays awake to keep him company.
He is raising money for Jingyan’s treatment through injections, which cost around 1.4 million yuan (US$206,000) a year. During his live-streams, viewers often see the elderly man clumsily applying make-up on his face and swatching lipsticks on his forearm to compare colours like other beauty influencers.
His daughter, Zhu Wei, says that he is better at wearing make-up than her.
Nine years ago, when Jingyan was six months old, he was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic disease that damages motor neurons in the spinal cord and causes progressive muscle weakness and respiratory issues. There are reportedly 30,000 living SMA cases in China, with about 1,200 new cases each year. Jingyan has SMA Type 1, the most severe form of the condition.
Doctors told Zhu Wei that her son would only live for 18 months. The news shattered her, and she stared at her son blankly all day long.
Seeing his daughter’s mental collapse, Zhu decided to take over the responsibility of caring for Jingyan. He says that she is his only daughter and if anything happens to her, his whole family will collapse.
To help his grandson, Zhu went to the rehabilitation department of the local Children’s Hospital and pretended to be another patient’s family member so he could learn massage skills from therapists.
After mastering the techniques, he now gives massages to Jingyan every day. Even when he was sick, he wore layers of masks to avoid passing germs to his grandson and continued the massage routine.
In 2019, nusinersen, a medicine for the disease, was approved in China. The medication, which is said to significantly increase survival rates and improve patients’ quality of life, cost 700,000 yuan per injection, and Jingyan needed two injections every year.
To pay for the treatment, Zhu sold his flat and borrowed money from relatives. His daughter worked during the day and live-streamed in the evenings. Since no company would hire a man in his 70s to endorse products, Zhu began live-streaming with beauty products that his daughter had bought.
In 2021, the medication was covered by China’s medical insurance, reducing the cost of each injection to 33,000 yuan. Jingyan has now grown to nine years old and, on his better days, can go to school to study and play with other children.
Zhu Wei says that her father seems to carry a super engine on his back all the time and that he is a superman, super dad and super grandad.
Zhu says that his wish is for Jingyan to be able to stand independently.
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