Cancer stricken former millionaire in China struggles to look after 75 adopted children

A lymph-cancer patient who became a millionaire in the 1980s through her garment business is now more than 2 million yuan (HK$2.5 million) in debt after adopting 75 children over the past two decades, the Beijing Times reports.

Originally a resident of Wu’an in Hebei province, Li Lijuan, 46, now lives in Shangquan Village near a few depleted mines. She wakes up early and sends more than 20 children to a school about 8km away in the hope that “knowledge will change their wretched fates,” the report says. Her “family” has produced three university students and a public servant.

Eighty percent of her children were abandoned by their families because they were disabled or sick. The rest became orphans due to coalmine disasters or other tragedies.

Despite some help from charities, Li’s informal orphanage has a shortfall of about 1 million yuan in meeting its day-to-day costs. She has had to sustain her family through farming and a shoe-mending business to cover monthly necessities of more than 50,000 yuan.

In 2011, after being diagnosed with early-stage lymph cancer, Li stayed in hospital for only 7 days as she preferred to save her high medical costs to look after the children.