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Can you help this girl?
Can you help this girl?
This is about Penny (Yu Ping), a nice young Chinese girl who is just looking for a chance to lead a normal life.
She is only 24 years old.
She was born into a very poor family from the countryside in Henan.
After she was only 1 month old she was given away by her parents. They didn't want her.
Since then she lived with her grandparents who are also very poor.
Penny has seldom seen or had contact with her parents since then.
Some time ago Penny came to Ningbo hoping to find work, which she did.
Just some small jobs here and there, but enough to pay her rent and eat.
Some months ago she became our babysitter and looked after our 2 kids for a few hours each day.
My 3 year old boy and my 2 year old girl love her very much, and she loves them.
She is the best baby sitter we ever had.
Before she started working in our home, we asked her if she had any health problems.
She said she was taking medication for slightly high blood pressure. This was because her kidneys were weak.
Apart from that she appeared fit and healthy.
About a week ago, she took ill with a cold, a throat infection, and vomiting.
After going to the hospital, she called us to say she could not continue to come and look after our kids
and that she had already bought a train ticket to return to her home town in Henan.
She asked if she could come to pick up her salary the next day.
I found it a bit strange that she would go back home since she had told me many times
she has no friends or family there who care much about her.
When she came to pick up her salary, I asked her a few questions about the situation.
She broke down in tears and started to tell me the following . . .
When she had gone to the hospital the doctors discovered she had stage 5 (the most severe) chronic kidney failure.
She was given 3 choices.
1- Find a kidney donor and have a transplant.
2 - Go on an immediate rigourous course of kidney dialysis.
3 - Refuse treatment and die within 3 to 6 months.
With the first 2 options being EXTREMELY expensive, and her having virtually no money, she accepted that she was going back home to die.
Having admitted to me that there was no one at all back home who could help her with this situation
I managed to persuade her to stay here in Ningbo and let my wife and myself help her whichever way we could.
We don't have much money ourselves but we couldn't sit back and let this happen to this girl.
She is a lovely person. Very honest and hard working.
Already we have many promises of help from our friends but it is going to take quite a lot of money to pay for this treatment,
and we are going to have to raise it in any way we can. She needs dialysis several times a week and it costs 500 yuan each time.
She will have to have the kidney dialysis for the rest of her life.
As you probably know, this will be very costly, and, quite simply, she just does not have the money.
It is almost impossible to say how much money she will need in total.
At the moment she, and we are just taking things as they come, day by day.
The hope is that she will have an operation which will allow her to have dialysis at home.
This also requires a special machine to be bought. The cost of the fluid bags for treatment is also very high.
A very conservative estimate for the cost of just the first year of treatment alone would be around 250,000 RMB.
This does not take into account the possibility of infection, which would involve more hospital stays and treatment.
This poor girl needs help and she needs it NOW!
If you yourself can contribute something to help her, good!
If you know anyone else who can contribute to help her, good!
If you know of any charity organisations who might be able to help her, good!
If you know of any companies who might be able to make a donation, good!
If you cannot help with a donation but you have some ideas of how to raise money, good!
Of course the money is important, but Penny can also benefit from your good wishes and thoughts.
Irrespective of your faith, if you believe in the power of prayer, she needs your prayers too.
If you can help in ANY way, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this.
Friends of Penny, Terry and Lily.
(P.S. A Chinese translation of the above will follow soon.)
Ningbo Guide supports this effort! Please help Supertramp with any donations that you can spare. It's for a good cause and we'll be keeping you updated with developments in the case.
I'm gonna spread this info. to as many people as i can.
I can provide chinese translation if needed.
Of course spread this information as much as you can, and thank you for that.
In the meantime the Chinese translation is already here . .
http://www.ningboguide.com/node/5616
You must have missed it.
I would like to publicly thank the following people for their generosity . . .
Tom Deckamp and his wife Ann (Huang Li Ping)
Professor Chris O'Brien of Nottingham University (Ningbo).
And of course Craig, and Thane from Ningbo Guide.
You are 'Friends of Penny'
It is my wish that sometime in the future Penny Yu will be well enough to thank you in person.
If anyone has any questions AT ALL regarding Penny's condition, or wants to know how to help, PLEASE contact us . .
Thank you kindly.
At last Penny (Yu Ping) had enough strength yesterday to be able to have her picture taken and record a little video.
She has already started the dialysis treatment and she is responding well.
I'm sorry for the lack of updates but I will give a full update of her situation later today.
Meantime . . here is a photo of the brave girl herself. Penny Yu!
Penny (Yu Ping) has been in hospital for just over 1 week now.
In the first 3 days she was still on the critical list.
On Tuesday (10th November) she had an operation to put a tube into her abdomen.
This was to help her get the dialysis. When (if) she is well enough to come home this tube will make it easier to do the dialysis on her own at home.
Of course she needs a dialysis machine to do this and they are not cheap. Around $50,000 U.S.
It's called an APD dialyser (Automated Peritoneal Dialysis)
Since she started the dialysis in hospital a few days ago, her condition has improved dramatically. She can sit up and talk and walk (with a little help) to the bathroom.
Every time I visit her and tell her of the kindness of people who have helped her so far, she cannot stop crying.
She thinks she is not worth it and that she is too much trouble.
She is worth it, and she is no trouble to me.
She is really such a nice young girl.
Sadly she still has a long way to go.
If all goes well, the doctors say that she can leave hospital and begin treatment at home (our home) in around 2 weeks.
Before this can happen we need to be able to buy the dialysis machine and all of the associated fluid bags etc.
Regarding the appeal to help Penny there is GOOD news and, sadly, bad news.
The good news is that so far we have been able to raise just over 70,000 yuan (RMB).
Thanks mostly to the generosity of my good friends and their friends.
Of course the bad news is that this amount is still not enough to see her through even the first year of treatment.
More good news though is that the treatment is cheaper next year and in years to come. Heh heh.
"Only" 80,000 yuan each year for the rest of her life. I am trying not to laugh here.
I know it might seem almost impossible to try and raise such an amount of money but I refuse to give up believing that it can be done.
It HAS to be done.
It is written.
My heartfelt thanks, my family's thanks, and most importantly Penny's thanks go out to ALL who have helped her so far.
You are all indeed "Friends of Penny"
Peace and love to all, whether you have given or not.
friendsxofxpenny@gmail.com Please contact us and learn how to help.
Terry.
Hi
Ningbolife.com and Ningboexpat.com have also linked in to this article and will be mentioned in this weeks newletter
Thanks a lot, E!
I am sure that with your involvement we can do much more to help Penny.
Your support is very much appreciated!
Terry.
P.S. Tell Tom I said 'Hi!' 
Encountered Sife china of Nottingham university Ningbo in Tianyi square on Sunday when they were doing charitable bazaar ,then told this post to them and its student chairman ,it can be worked out to contact of this organization if possible .Post the topic in own website yet,wish it could get more attention and help from more warm heart friends .
The update on Penny's situation above has finally been translated and posted in the Chinese version of this thread here . .
http://www.ningboguide.com/node/5616
Sorry for the delay!
Terry
I'm a student from university of Nottingham Ningbo,China. I'm very concern about Yu Ping. I want to do something to help her. And I want to know that if I want to donate money to her, how can I give the money to her. The money should be given to whom? Please give me a feedback as soon as possible.
You can contact me through this E-mail
更好的翻译建议
We told above friend from University of Nottingham Ningbo about Help to Yu ping ,he is the member from student group in school and they just ended public welware week and plan give some donation to Yu ping ,so they sent email to Friendsxofxpenny@gmail.com , but no further reply to feedback.Maybe it's too busy to response the email, if possible ,please reply them in here or by email ,we all want to help Yu ping as above warm-heart student .
First I should say I am so sorry for taking so long to post here again about Penny.
Things have been very busy at home recently.
It has not been easy to say the least.
Anyway here is some news. Some of it good, some of it not so good.
First some good news!
The number of people who have given money, or supported Penny in other ways, has been growing and growing.
They are now ALL 'Friends of Penny'
With your help, that number can continue to grow even more!
More good news! So far (as of today) we have received the grand sum of (wait for it!) . . . .
86,567 yuan !!!
That's right, Eighty six thousand, five hundred and sixty seven yuan (RMB)!!!
You have no idea just how happy you have made this lovely girl.
She has been emotionally overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers.
Penny hopes that one day (very soon) she can thank you all in person.
Some bad news. Penny has had some problems though.
The first operation she had was not successful. The tube they put in her stomach to enable the dialysis became blocked.
The dialysis wouldn't work, so she had to undergo a second operation just more than one week after the first.
This second operation was successful and she was able to continue the dialysis, but then another problem.
The doctors had not waited enough time for the wounds to heal and fluid was leaking from around the tube in her stomach.
Once again she had to stop the dialyisis. The doctors hope she can start the dialysis again tomorrow (Monday).
If there is no problem, after a few days, we hope Penny will be able to leave the hospital and come and live with us.
Penny has already been in the hospital for around a month and she hates it.
Wouldn't you?
Sadly more bad news. It is great that we have already received so much money to help Penny but sadly . . .
It's not enough!! Already (as of writing this) we have paid out the sum of 24,024 yuan for Penny's care and treatment.
That is in less than 1 month!!!
If everything goes well, she will be able to come home within the next few days.
We still don't have enough money to buy the HOME DIALYSIS MACHINE
The cheapest price we have been quoted so far is around 80,000 yuan.
Without this machine she cannot lead what you or I would call a 'normal life'.
If you want to read more information about the machine she needs, you can find it here . . . DIALYSIS MACHINE.
I have tried really hard to find some company that can supply this Dialysis Machine cheaper, or even for free (heh heh, that would be very nice),
but so far . . . no luck.
To be continued . . .
Hello fellows, let say, why do not call the local news and let the government do somehting? I want to help but I don't have the detail informations, so Terry you should call all the local news meidas to see how they could do. once they promisse to help, at least 3 or 4 times the money you collected.
Yeah, that might be a solution, but we have to know if penny willing to be front of camera at first.
Call the medias! That's a good suggestion. I know some reporters who might help.
Vina . .
You nailed it on the head.
We have been in touch with ALL of the media.
Newspapers, T.V., Radio stations.
They are ALL very interested in trying to help Penny BUT . .
At this moment she is still recovering from 2 different operations.
She is still not strong enough. She has had many setbacks.
Of course Penny needs ALL the help she can get but . .
We MUST think of her health and recovery FIRST!!!!
When the time is right we will be happy to let her talk to the media.
When SHE feels the time is right!
Sun Xiansheng, and Kevin, I have replied to both of your E mails.
Thank you again for your kind concern.
Friends of Penny Yu.
15968401442 English
13071951876 Chinese
So, finally!
After staying in hospital now for over one month . .
If all goes well, Penny will be able to leave the Yinzhou Number 2 Hospital tomorrow!
(I say again, if all goes well!)
Her thanks, and our thanks, go out to ALL the 'Friends of Penny' who have made this possible.
Without your support and your money, I don't know what would have happened to her. I don't want to think about that.
The doctors think that her condition is stable, BUT! This can only continue if she can go on having the kidney dialysis.
She will live in our home and myself and my wife will do our best to look after her.
Because of the operation to put the tube in her abdomen, she will be able to do the dialysis by herself at home.
Sadly we still don't have enough money to buy the DIALYSIS MACHINE.
This means she has to do it manually which is VERY time consuming and VERY uncomfortable to say the least.
If she can get the machine her life will change dramatically overnight.
She can do the dialysis while she is sleeping and be able to live a reasonably normal life during the day.
PLEASE HELP HER!!!
Even without the machine the cost of the fluid bags for dialysis and the associated medication is high. At the moment we only have enough for some months treatment.
SHE IS GOING TO NEED THIS DIALYSIS EVERY WEEK, EVERY MONTH, EVERY YEAR, FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE !!!!
The bottom line is Penny still needs your help.
It doesn't matter if you can only give 10 yuan or 20 yuan.
Every little bit helps!!
Once again, I want to say to those who have alrready helped Penny . .
You are ALL her guardian angels!!
May whatever god you believe in love and protect you.
I am sure I forgot a lot to tell you but if anyone has any questions at all, you know our phone numbers and our E mail.
Terry 15968401442
Lily 13071951876
A HEALTHY and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all!
My prayers are with this poor girl. I will contact some of our corporate partners here in China.
Born in New Zealand, Perfected in Australia.
Thanks for that, Dan! Let's see what happens.
GOOD news!
Penny is continuing to improve every day.
We have so far managed to collect the wonderful sum of 90,182 yuan !! (renminbi).
Bad news!
We have already paid out 27,911 yuan in fees for hospital care and medication.
We still don't have enough money to buy the HOME DIALYSIS MACHINE.
And we don't have enough money for treatment if we DO buy the machine.
Anyway it has been a magnificent effort so far from ALL the Friends of Penny and she and we thank you so much.
Special thanks will go out soon to Ningbo Guide and some students from Nottingham University (the Fighting 50).
Watch this space . .
I just spent almost 2 hours writing a post with important information about Penny and the people who have donated recently and then BOOM! I tried to send it and I lost it all!!
Me not happy. Back to the drawing board.
P.S. Craig . . how do I upload an image from my PC, NOT from a URL?
How to make a new ad? from the Classified Ads section explains it.
/
Emay . . maybe you didn't read my post above.
However, I am still at fault for not keeping folks abreast of Penny's situation.
It has been a very hectic time over Christmas and New Year in our home but that is no excuse for me not posting more I suppose.
It was always tough having 2 kids at home and now I have 3. The third being Penny!
Penny is relatively well considering her circumstances but there are still many challenges ahead for her.
I want to post in more detail later.
As I said many times before, if ANYONE has ANY questions AT ALL regarding Penny's situation they are welcome to call either my wife or myself, or contact us by E mail.
We will be happy to answer all and any questions.
Thanks for your concern.
So, finally Penny's story was in the local Ningbo Evening newspaper. (Ningbo Wanbao)
The reporter has agreed to do a series of articles.
Penny can also be seen on Ningbo TV in the very near future.
Here are the links to the newspaper articles, but of course they are in Chinese ONLY!
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/html/2010-03/11/node_51.htm
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/html/2010-03/11/node_57.htm
Penny is doing very well and will continue to do well as long as she can continue with her treatment.
Once again we give our thanks to EVERYONE who has helped Penny so far.
Without that help, perhaps she would not still be here.
Friends of Penny
There will be 2 articles about Penny (Yu Ping) on television, Ningbo TV1, this evening (Sunday, March 14th).
6.00pm 'Kan Kan Kan', and later . .
7.30pm NBTV1 News.
There will also be an article (in English) on the Ningbo TV English News programme NEXT Sunday (March 21st) around 2.00pm
Thanks again to all who have helped Penny come this far.
Terry.
The stories on TV so far:
Kan Kan Kan, air date March 14th. Story starts at 1:42.
Kan Kan Kan, air date March 18th. Story starts at 8:08. (I'm in this one!)
. . And here are the Newspaper articles so far from the Ningbo Evening News (Ningbo WanBao)
Sorry to all of Penny's foreign friends but they are in Chinese only.
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/page/50/2010-03-11/A1/95131268278059453.pdf
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/page/50/2010-03-11/A7/40991268278040156.pdf
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/page/50/2010-03-15/A1/78581268624045653.pdf
http://daily.cnnb.com.cn/nbwb/html/2010-03/19/content_174943.htm
The first 3 links can be downloaded as PDF files to your PC.
Thanks again to everyone for the support so far.
We love you, and Penny loves you. Without your help she might not be here just now.
I wish I had more time to write more.
Terry
There will be a longer article on the Ningbo TV 1 English speaking news tomorrow (Sunday, March 21st) at 7.33am and the same programme shown again at 1.16 in the afternoon.
If you have any interest in Penny's situation, we hope you can watch it.
Thanks!
Terry.
The story aired on Ningbo TV English news on Sunday the 21st.
http://www.nbtv.com.cn/video/index.asp?channel=1&contentid=1201003210713...
Randy's Cafe will host a benefit for Penny on May 22nd. Stacey-Jane Douglas will perform, click here for details.
Enjoyed Stacey's performance in friends meeting before,so that should be a happy time to join living show which benefits to help Penny .
I am proud to announce that Randy's Cafe has donated the proceeds of last Saturday's fund-raiser, ¥1500, to Penny's cause. In addition, Sino Sales & Support donated ¥1000 and the new business Randy's DIY Pottery Painting donated ¥500. Wilson Lum, General Manager of the Sheraton, donated ¥1000 as well. Congratulations to these warm-hearted people! Ningbo Guide will continue to support Penny's cause until she can buy the dialysis machine that she so desperately needs. Again, good wishes to everyone who helped.
Exciting News about Penny !!!!!!
Thanks to Craig, and the Ningbo Guide Magazine . . .
There have been some very interesting developments in the story regarding helping Penny Yu (Yu Ping).
Some things have happened that even I wouldn't have dreamed possible.
Even although I wish for these things to happen every single day.
Some of my wishes have come true!!!
Penny is doing very well these days. She is still alive and living a reasonably healthy life.
Most importantly . . . Penny Yu is still alive!!
This would not have been possible without the help of ALL of you who have GIVEN your money and support to Penny.
And the exciting things which have happened recently would not have been possible without the continued support of Craig, and the Ningbo Guide.
I will soon be sending an E mail, first, to ALL the lovely people who have contributed something to help Penny. Penny loves you, and we love you too!
Later, I will post the contents of that E mail, (in English and Chinese) here on the Ningbo Guide Forum.
Believe me . . It (mostly) is very very good news.
Our sincerest gratitude goes out to all who have helped so far.
More later!
Terry, Lily, Rowan, Lindybelle, and Penny and ALL 'Friends of Penny Yu' . . .
You know who you are!
Dearest 'Friend of Penny',
I am sending out this E mail to all the lovely people, just like yourself, who have, in some way, done something to keep our Penny Yu alive.
First I should apologise for taking so long to write to you.
As most of you know I have to look after my 2 small children, Rowan and Lindy, at home most of the time during the day.
Sometimes its not so easy to get things done.
So . . . as I am sure you all know, it is now 9 months since Penny was told by the doctors that she had only 3 to 6 months to live.
That was unless she did not start immediate treatment. Daily kidney dialysis.
Of course, thankfully, she actually DID start having treatment immediately . . .
. . . but this would not have been possible without the help of the many people who answered her cry for help at that time.
Penny is still alive and well today. That gives me a great feeling, and I hope it makes you feel good too.
Although she still has the severe chronic kidney problem, if you meet her, you will see that she looks just as healthy as you or me!
This is only possible because she is able to continue the kidney dialysis treatment twice daily at our home.
She would NOT be able to continue that treatment had it not been for your help.
So, what has happened in the past 9 months?
Well, regarding the money that has been donated, thanks to you, we have received as of today July 28th 2010 . . .
The wonderful total of 195,297 yuan (Chinese RenMinBi) ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I MUST at this point give our very special thanks to Craig, and the Ningbo Guide Magazine.
Of the 195,297 yuan that has been given to help Penny, almost 40,000 yuan has been given as a result of the Ningbo Guide Magazine, and Forum.
I think all of you should be proud to know that, with your help, you have managed to keep a sick and dying girl ALIVE!
Sadly though, and just to keep you abreast of the situation, we also have to give out a lot of money to pay for Penny's ongoing dialysis treatment.
As of today July 28th 2010 we have had to pay out the sum of 57,032 yuan (Chinese RenMinBi).
EVERY single 1 yuan of that money has been spent ONLY on treatment, medicine, tests, or hospital visits for Penny. Nothing else.
But! Let's focus on the GOOD news!
Recently there have been some wonderful developments regarding helping Penny.
I am hopeful that, as a result of these developments, Penny Yu will have a long life, and a bright future!
I will tell you about this VERY soon!
In the meantime, you are all bright stars in a dark sky.
May your lights keep shining brightly.
My love to you all,
Terry, Lily, Rowan, Lindy, and of course, MOST importantly, Penny.
PART 2 to follow soon. Watch this space!!!
Chinese version to follow as soon as my wife Lily has the time to help me. heh heh.
FriendsXofXPenny@gmail.com 15968401442
Parts 2, 3, and 4 to follow VERY soon!
Suggest maybe can buy the kidney machine with other patient to share together, then maybe can save another life who maybe cant afford it ,too, heard some patients in Ningbo are using the way to do the kidney dialysis treatment, even four together.Maybe can consider the way, and for other patient, maybe can contact the hospital to find.
Thanks for your concern . .
Unfortunately, with the Dialysis Machine we are trying to buy for Penny, sharing is NOT an option.
I will try to explain why.
There are many different types of dialysis, and dialysis machines.
The kind of dialysis that Penny (at the moment) has to do 3 times daily is called Peritoneal Dialysis. This is different from Haemodialysis which involves cleaning the blood.
The machine we are trying to buy for Penny is called an AUTOMATED PERITONEAL DIALYSIS MACHINE, or APD machine for short.
The big advantage of this machine is that it is AUTOMATIC, and can do the dialysis while the patient is sleeping at night.
The process or cycle takes 10 hours to complete.
This also has to be done EVERY single night.
This means the patient can be free to do anything they want in the daytime.
It just would not be practical to share such a machine.
I hope you understand, but as I said, thanks for your suggestion.
Terry
www.nbaxtm.com 宁波爱心同盟