He Rides Terminally Ill Girlfriend Across China, And Now...

One man, a bike, a woman on a wheelchair and their two dogs.

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This is the story of Ding Yizhou and Lai Min, who once attended the same primary school and remained close ever since.

Although they had not seen each other for a while after graduation, Ding never forgot about Lai Min.

At the age of 21, Lai Min began to fall inexplicably and was diagnosed with hereditary cerebellar ataxia, a genetic disorder characterized by slowly progressive incoordination of gait and often associated with poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movement. Soon enough, Lai Min would lose the ability to move.

She had watched her mother suffer from a similar condition as a child until her death, and could only wonder when her time would come. 

That moment came in 2014 when Lai Min posted about it on her QQ Moments, which immediately caught the attention of Ding Yizhou who wrote: “What’s wrong?”

Lai Min told him everything, and Ding admitted being in love with her despite her terminal illness and physical condition. After losing both her parents and her boyfriend of 7 years, Lai Min's world had flipped upside down.

After hearing what had happened to her, Ding asked her: “Now that you don’t have anyone or anything holding you back in Nanning, why not go back to Liuzhou?”

She didn’t think much of his suggestion, but little did she know that Ding would really come back to get her and her dog a few days later to begin their journey and adventure back to Liuzhou.

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Lai Min was undoubtedly thrilled to see Ding, but remained concerned about her health and found it hard to believe that someone could love her in her condition. Considering what had happened with her ex-boyfriend, she feared Ding would abandon her again.

That wasn’t the case.

Ding would walk her and her dog every morning, hand in hand, showing that his love and care for her were genuine.

He spent what was left of his savings to pay for her treatment. Meanwhile, Lai Min’s condition continued to deteriorate, slowly losing the ability to speak.

In her younger, healthier days, she worked as a tour guide and always dreamt of traveling and seeing the country and the world.

A day later, Ding showed her a map of China with a heart-shaped route crossing several cities and provinces, indicating that he had planned to take her on a memorable adventure.

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Traveling around China with a terminally ill girlfriend? How crazy was this idea?

Neither Lai Min's physical condition nor their financial health could sway them from taking this risk and opportunity to make lifelong memories. 

They began training at home to make sure the dog would be able to pull and follow them. Ding tuned up Lai Min's wheelchair a bit to sustain long travels.

On January 1, 2015, they officially began their adventure on a beautiful sunny day.

In order to earn enough money, Ding took on a lot of different jobs, including barber, harvesting crops, cattle and sheep, and others. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, especially for the woman he loved.

On July 1, the couple finally reached Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

In front of the Potala Palace, Ding used a beautiful bouquet of flowers to get down on one knee and propose to Lai Min, who said yes with all her love and heart. 

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To her surprise, Lai Min later found out, unexpectedly, that she was pregnant and had a 50% chance of passing her illness onto her child, as had been the case for her. 

But the married couple was ready to give both the baby and themselves a chance. 

Every day she put her hand on her stomach and imagined what the child would look like.

Unfortunately, the child was identified as carrying the disease-causing gene, and they had to say goodbye to the one they hadn't seen yet.

After about a year, Lai Min and Ding finally recovered from their loss and despair and opened their own inn hotel through crowdfunding.

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In February this year, Lai Min was pregnant once again and luckily welcomed their child on December 3 – a healthy and beautiful little girl!

Their love story is both inspiring and heartwarming, proving that one’s unconditional love leads to a happy life. 

Source: Weibo@丁一舟赖敏/ sohu

Editor: Crystal H

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