Coral Boys Plea For Help

These are the heartbreaking images of Chinese toddler Li Shenghan who urgently needs treatment in order to save his life from a disease that has turned him into a living coral.

Doctors say that the four-year-old from Shenyang, in Liaoning province, in northeastern China has Acute Monocytic Leukemia and urgently needs expensive chemotherapy and treatment and that it needs to start now.

But his parents who are migrant workers who earn less than 100 pounds a week have no savings left after spending more than a year travelling from hospital after hospital as the condition got worse.

Mum Mu Xiaojie, 33, said: "My husband and I did not have a lot of money but we have always wanted to do the best for our child which is why we went outside of our area to work. Now the doctors say it may well have been the pollution or something else in the environment he picked up while we were travelling that has made him so ill.

"He was always such a very happy child and got on so well with other children – now he's in pain all the time and he does not want to play with other children. But he still laughs and people have been very kind sending him toys."

"About a year ago I noticed some pimples on his arm. At first, it resembled a common skin disease, so I took him to hospital and doctors said the pimples were likely to be caused by an insect’ bite.

"The doctors prescribed some ointment; however, one week later, the pimples were still there. So I took him to a bigger hospital where they gave him the same ointment and by then the pimples had covered more of his body.

"Doctors didn’t know what the pimples were and didn’t risk removing the pimples directly. Finally the pimples grew bigger and spread to his whole body, making him look like a living coral."

Now his father Li Wenrui and his mother Mu Xiaojie, 35, who have both given up work to care for their child have finally got a diagnosis after taking their son back to their hometown at Shengjing hospital at Shengyang.

Mum Mu Xiaojie said: "When he first came here he was in a lot of pain and refused to move at all but the doctors and nurses here have been wonderful and they do their best for him. He is actually in a much better condition now than he was although he is still weak. In addition many people have been very kind sending my son presents – and I believe with semi-people caring that we now have a chance."

But the family need donations to go through with the treatment.

Doctors say he is suffering from a very rare version of Acute Monocytic Leukemia, and that if he does not get the full treatment soon then the cancer cells could spread to bone marrow and lead to acute leukemia.

Wang Huan, The doctor in charge of Shenghan’s case, said: "The child’s disease is quite serious, in the past 2 decades; we just had one similar case."

According to doctor Wang, the coral like skin covering is even present inside his mouth and under his eyelids causing incredible pain and is also probably the reason why he's not eating properly.

He said if the treatment is done properly the boy has a 50 percent chance of survival.

He said: "We need to carry out a bone marrow transplantation, and he also needs extensive chemotherapy."

The family needs to raise another 50,000 Euros for the treatment and is already in debt to the total of 10,000 which they estimate they will have to spend the rest of their lives earning to pay back friends and family.

Journalism Without Borders is collecting donations to help fund the treatment.