Chinese Dad Raises $26,000 Selling Bear Hugs for Son’s Cancer Treatment

The father of a 2-year-old cancer-stricken boy in Hefei, Anhui Province, dressed up in a bear costume and sold hugs on the street hoping to raise money to pay for his son’s medical bills.

One year after he was born in 2015, Feng Kai’s son was diagnosed with leukemia, according to Shanghaiist.

Relatives tried to persuade him and his wife to keep away from medical treatment and avoid the heavy financial burden. But Feng persisted, quitting his job as a mechanic to take care of his son full-time.

In an effort to save his life, a range of treatments was administered over two years, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, according to Daily Mail.

A series of photos show the 25-year-old father donning a bear outfit and offering hugs for 10 yuan ($1.45) on the street with a cardboard sign around his neck, which reads that he was raising funds for his ill son.

Sadly, Feng struggled to get enough people to donate.

Within three days, he managed to give out only seven hugs and received just a little over 100 yuan ($14.50), nowhere near the goal to pay for his son’s medical costs, which are running at 1,000 yuan ($145) a day.

The good news is that online netizens across China caught wind of Feng’s story, and just a day after the photos were published, he had received more than 180,000 yuan ($26,118) in donations.

Many families across the country have faced a similar situation. In November, a teenage girl from Yunnan Province even had to resort to selling her virginity to raise money in order to save her sick brother’s life.

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