11YO Chinese Boy Sells Onions For $0.19 To Fund Sick Brother’s $135k Medical Fees

How far would you go to help someone in need? What if it was your own family that needed help?

This 11-year-old Chinese boy would sacrifice a lot. Including his bone marrow.

Wakes Up At 6am Every Day To Pluck & Sell Spring Onions

11-year-old Yan Yihang from China wakes up at 6am every day to pluck spring onions from his family farm. He then walks into town to sell onions before going to school.

Image: Pear Video

Talk about dedication.

He doesn’t even get a huge amount of it. He sells his spring onions for RMB1 (~S$0.19) per bunch through a self-service store.

Image: Pear Video

Customers who buy the spring onions will leave the cash in a small tin.

He spends his school lunch hour checking on the store and closes the store after school. He then counts his daily earnings and writes them down at night when he’s home.

Image: Giphy

My heart breaks for this boy, but the story gets even more heartbreaking. Please prepare some tissues.

Store Was Previously Managed By Grandmother But She Suffered A Stroke

The store used to be managed by his 66-year-old grandmother. However, she suffered a stroke in March 2019 so he has had to take care of the store.

His earnings aren’t enough to help pay the medical bills either, as he earns up to RMB50 (~S$9.68) in a day, and sometimes brings home nada, zilch aka nothing. Yes, he sometimes earns nothing.

7 Year Old Brother Has Life-Threatening Blood Disease

So then comes the question: why is this boy toiling when he should be focusing on his studies?

Well, his brother has a rare blood disease called aplastic anaemia, according to Daily Mail.

Image: Pear Video

This means that he can’t produce enough red blood cells and thus, the boy is more susceptible to infections and uncontrolled bleeding. He has had this condition since 2015.

To pay off the medical expenses, his grandparents borrowed money from people they knew including friends and relatives. The total expenses over four years amount to a whopping $135,511.

His father is a labourer in another city.

There’s also a handwritten sign at the store which says, “buy vegetables, save my brother” and an explanation of the family’s plight.

He Donated His Bone Marrow To Brother In 2018

Besides trying to earn extra cash for his brother, the 11-year-old also went under the knife to undergo a bone marrow transplant in June 2018.

According to him, it was “a little painful but (he) was not scared.”

Over the past four months, he has earned about $228.82.

So why not just accept donations now that thousands of people have read about his story?

Well, this noble young man simply says that he wants to “earn money by his own effort.”

I’m not crying, you are.

Image: Tenor

Watch the full video in Chinese here.