Fulfilling wishes of children with rare diseases
Print Edition
Despite being only 5, Mu Yi has made a wishlist of 50 things he wants to fulfill. Meeting Ultraman was number one.
So when he opened the door one day and saw the red-and-silver-suited superhero waving at him, he was ecstatic.
The boy has been fighting neuroblastoma since 2019. It is a cancer that develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body.
“It’s hard to explain why he aches so badly and needs treatment, so we told him that there are monsters in his body, and he needs to defeat them just like Ultraman,” said his father.
Mu’s wish came true thanks to the coordination of Childream, a charity organization hammering at helping children and teenagers with critical illness realize dreams.
Xu Wenjun, the founder of Childream, learned about the Ultraman wish after Mu’s father posted it online, seeking help from netizens in early January.
Xu immediately contacted the China Shanghai Character License Administrative Co Ltd, the copyright representative of Ultraman’s creator in China. “Everyone was glad to help, and the meeting was nailed down in two weeks,” he said.
“Medical care matters, but for these kids, I believe seeing their wishes come true may give them some extra strength to fight against diseases,” said Xu.
In 2016, Xu watched the documentary “Batkid Begins,” which recorded how the city of San Francisco transformed itself into Gotham to fulfill a 5-year-old leukemic boy’s dream of becoming Batman.
He was deeply moved. He quit his job as a logistics engineer before long and set up Childream in Hangzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang Province. It took Xu four months to search for the first wish. He was turned down millions of times by parents and hospital staff for fear that he was a fraud or the project was “pretty but immature.”
A 17-year-old woman named Ziying, suffering from leukemia, told him she wanted to enter an art academy and become a designer. Her condition was pretty bad back then, and the family had drained their entire bank account on her treatment. Xu helped her find a painting studio which allowed her to study drawing when her physical condition improves.
“Perhaps that has become her spiritual support. Her condition began to get better, and she officially started her art studies after the bone marrow transplant. Now she has realized her dream and entered an art academy,” said Xu.
At Mu’s home, Ultraman demonstrated his ace, and the children followed suit. When the superhero was about to leave, the boy said: “Thank you for passing me your power.”
Young lives lost
Over the past four years, Childream has helped 157 critically ill children realize their dreams. But still, Xu often feels frustrated about the loss of a young life or failing to fulfill a plan.
Three years ago, Zhang Leilei, 24, came to Xu and offered to be a volunteer. “I was impressed at her passion and sense of responsibility, so I persuaded her to join in,” Xu said. Now Zhang is the only full-time employee at Childream.
“Many of these kids have long been confined to the wards, and their lives are monotonous. What we’re doing is like dropping some color on a blank canvas,” said Zhang.
In 2017, Xu received a wish from an 8-year-old boy whose pet name is Zhezhe. Zhezhe was born with Prader-Willi syndrome. “I really want to become a policeman, even if only for a day,” said the boy.
Xu spent two months coordinating with various departments in Hangzhou, and then it happened.
“It’s a day that we will never forget,” said his mother.
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