CTS News Magazine-Seeing the Rare Vitality (20)

When pursuing your dream, do you still hesitate at the crossroad? Let’s take a look at some stories, and maybe you’ll have a totally different thought. Yu, a 28-year-old youth, spent 100 days traveling 300 kilometers across China all over by a motorcycle in May last year. Even if he fell off from the motorcycle and it broke down during the venture, he still walked five full days in the dessert. Another 37-year-old Ling Cheng, traveled to four countries in her wheelchair. She didn’t let the disability restrict her life.

There are only six cases of VHL patients in Taiwan, and three are in Yu’s family, including his mother and older brother. A a big boy, Yu, studying from Taipei to Beijing, traveling around China became an unforgettable memory of his life. Wen-Han wrote down his story and named as〈Dream, on the way〉, to encourage those who have dreams but lack of courage to realize, and bravely go on their journey.

Cheng is a SMA patient, she could only move with a wheelchair since she was a junior high school student. At the age of 24, she owned her first electric wheelchair, which gave her the chance to move around without others’ help. Since she has taken her first step, she has traveled four countries so far. She challenged herself bravely with diving and paragliding that even ordinary people scared to try. She is also a picture book writer, with her right hand which only have one-tenth of the muscle strength, she picked up the paintbrush and drew what she saw and heard during traveling into a picture book "Travel in a Wheelchair".

The diseases are not an obstacle, but an energy to move on forward. That is very different from the stereotypes of the general public think of rare diseases. Patients also have dreams, and are full of passion and energy during their young age. As Cheng said, “Because God has helped erase a lots of choices for me, so that I can focus more on doing one thing right, or complete my dream without hesitate.” Yu said, ”We never need to complain for anything, God always gives us many choices, yet we always have no courage to take.”

★Watch it online:

Seeing the Rare Vitality (20): Grand Tour of Teens’ Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5lu2fa1j3o

Translator: Jazz Chen (Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome), Reviewer: Joy Yin