Photo story: Terminally ill man and his snack shop (19)

（People's Daily Online）  08:24, April 03, 2013  

In the vicinity of Bei Yuanchun wholesale markets in Urumqi, there is a popular snack shop run by a post-80 man named Qi Fayi.

The story began when Qi was diagnosed with chronic renal failure - Uremia in February 2012. After a period of medical treatment, Qi’s illness was under control but he still needed to have dialysis four times every day. Faced with high medical expenses, Qi decided to open a snack shop last October to make end meet.

Uremia has made Qi very weak. Despite of fatigue, he insists running his snack shop in the intervals of the peritoneal dialysis which are done three to four times a day. His snack shop has been successful since a friend shared his story on micro-blog this February.

Since then, some customers asked Qi to keep the change; some came from far away and others left some money for him. Qi was so grateful to those kind-hearted people that he added a slogan “I will get well” in his shop.

Under Qi’s carefully operating, the snack shop brought him 4,000 yuan every month (645.2 USD) which could barely cover the rest of his medical bill after health insurance reimbursement.

"I must live on; I would like to use the rest of my money to support poor students to go to school," Qi said firmly.