‘I owe it to mum’: boy gives 30 vials of blood after travelling 400km to see if he can be bone marrow donor to save sick mother
- The 10-year-old travelled more than 400 kilometres and underwent gruelling marrow matching tests to see if he could help save his mother
- The boy’s mother was diagnosed with leukaemia in July 2020 and requires a bone marrow transplant
A video of a 10-year-old Chinese boy having 30 vials of blood drawn to check his suitability to give his mother a life-saving bone marrow transplant has gone viral on Douyin.
Cao Song, 33, the boy’s father, told the South China Morning Post that his son, Cao Xuanyi, travelled more than 400 kilometres with his grandfather to Suzhou for a medical check-up on March 7 after his initial blood sample was found to match his mother’s.
In the video, which has attracted more than 237,000 likes online, the boy’s eyes are steady and firm as a medical professional draws blood from his arm.
“He used to be particularly scared of pain, but this time, knowing it was to save his mother, he didn’t say a word,” the father said.
The Caos are from Anhui province in eastern China. Xuanyi and his 3-year-old brother lived happily with their father and mother, with the family making a living running a small clothes shop until disaster struck.
