JIAMUSI, China: Netizens have rallied around a seven-year-old Chinese girl diagnosed with leukaemia, donating 600,000 yuan (US$93,700) to help with her treatment after a poignant letter she wrote to her father went public, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Monday (Jan 22).



According to the report, Zhang Jiaye, who comes from a village near Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province, was diagnosed with leukaemia in May 2016. The girl’s 18 courses of treatment within a year - totalling 590,000 yuan - had left her family heavily in debt.





The report added that the girl’s mother had left home last July and has not been heard from since.



In her letter, Jiaye told her father that she wanted to stop her treatments for the sake of his happiness.



“Dad, I saw you cry today. I’m so sad. I know you’ve spent a lot of money to treat me. You’ve run out of money. Mum also left. This is all because of me. If I am gone, mum will come back and you will be happy as before. I don’t want to be treated anymore. Let’s go home, shall we?” wrote Jiaye in her letter.



Jiaye’s father said that his daughter will never stop fighting the illness.





No details were given on how or when Jiaye’s letter was made public, but SCMP said donations began pouring in last September.



The young girl's plight is the latest in a string of incidents that have shone the spotlight on poverty in China. A video uploaded on Chinese social media site Weibo on Jan 14 showed a seven-year-old delivery boy working on a freezing cold day.



In early January, photos of another Chinese boy went viral after he showed up at school with his hair encrusted in ice. Primary school student Wang Fuman gained the nickname “Frost Boy” after he trekked for more than an hour in sub-zero temperatures.