On July 25, 2018, the big news suddenly broke out in the badminton world: Malaysia's Famous Li Zongwei temporarily announced his withdrawal from the World Championships and asian games of that year.
Both of these competitions are heavyweight, and as one of the top two veterans in the world badminton world, Li Zongwei is a big favorite to win the championship.
Because of this, Li Zongwei's temporary retirement has attracted widespread attention, and the outside world believes that he could not have made such a choice if he had not been forced to do so.
At that time, the reason given by the Malaysian Badminton Association was that Li Zongwei suffered from genotype respiratory diseases and needed treatment for one month, so he could not compete.
But soon there was news that Li Zongwei went to Taipei for treatment, and this news once again attracted attention, and everyone began to suspect that Li Zongwei's illness must be very serious, otherwise why not treat in Malaysia instead of choosing Taipei?
Sure enough, about two months later, the news that "Li Zongwei suffered from stage III nasopharyngeal cancer" began to circulate.
On September 22, 2018, in order to calm the outside world's speculation, the Malaysian Badminton Association finally revealed the truth: Li Zongwei did suffer from nasopharyngeal cancer, but not the third stage, but the early stage.
This news is both bad and good for Li Zongwei's fans.
The bad side is that Li Zongwei has cancer, which is a disease directly linked to "death"; the good side is that Li Zongwei's nasopharyngeal carcinoma belongs to the early stage and there is still a possibility of cure.
When the Malaysian Badminton Association announced Li Zongwei's condition, it also deliberately stressed that it hoped that everyone would respect the privacy of athletes and not spread gossip at will.
Soon after, Li Zongwei also appeared in person for an interview, claiming that he would definitely actively treat and calling on everyone to wait for him to return to the game.
However, a few months later, when Li Zongwei held a press conference again, the flag he had set was only half realized: his illness was cured, and returning to the field became a permanent possibility.
Athletes like Li Zongwei, who exercise almost every day, why do they still get cancer? If someone else has cancer, it is equivalent to being sentenced to death, so why can Li Zongwei succeed in fighting cancer?
People who love badminton know that Li Zongwei and Lin Dan, Peter. Gad and Tawfik are also known as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Yutan.
In terms of strength, all four are on a horizontal line. But compared with Lin Dan of the same level, Li Zongwei always seemed to be a little bit unlucky.
In the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, he only won the silver medal, regrettably becoming the "second oldest of the millennium".
Since the Olympic games are the most concerned of all the competitions, in everyone's impression, Li Zongwei seems to be inferior to Lin Dan.
But in fact, Lee Chung Wai was promoted to "World No. 1" player in 2008 and maintained this ranking for more than a year, making him malaysia's greatest badminton player ever.
Badminton not only brought honor to Li Zongwei on the field, but also made him awarded aristocratic titles such as "Dato" and "Datuk Willa".
In addition to honor and status, the money Li Zongwei earns by playing games is also astronomical.
According to data released by Forbes Sports: In 2018 alone, Li Zongwei's total income from playing matches reached 1.85 million US dollars, about 12 million yuan, ranking first among the badminton athletes of the year.
Li Zongwei's later success in fighting cancer is inseparable from his high income, because he spent nearly 10 million yuan on the cost of surgery to treat cancer alone.
On October 2, 2018, a Malaysian media outlet revealed that Li Zongwei received 33 proton therapy sessions in Taipei, and the cancer cells on his body had basically disappeared, and he would return to Malaysia on October 7.
Proton therapy is the most advanced cancer treatment method at present, only first-tier cities and a few provincial capitals in the mainland have this technology, while proton therapy in Taipei is an early start in the mainland, and the effect is relatively good, so it will be favored by Li Zongwei.
But compared to conventional therapy, proton therapy has one major drawback: it is expensive.
In order to completely eliminate cancer cells in the body, patients generally need to undergo dozens of treatments, and the cost of one treatment is close to 300,000 yuan.
So even if you only count the cost of proton therapy, Li Zongwei's 33 treatments cost nearly 10 million yuan.
For the average person, this is an astronomical number, unless there is medical insurance support, it is not affordable in any way.
The tragedy is that proton therapy has not joined medical insurance at present, so ordinary people want to use proton therapy to successfully fight cancer like Li Zongwei, which is equivalent to a fool's dream.
But Li Zongwei is different, his income in 2018 alone reached 12 million yuan, and the cost of supporting 33 proton therapies is more than enough.
The problem of money can be solved, but the pain caused by treatment cannot be eliminated, and Li Zongwei's road to anti-cancer is also full of dangers and hardships.
In an interview in September 2019, Li Zongwei revealed some of the things that happened when he was treating cancer.
According to him, proton therapy is quite painful and extremely frequent, up to five or six times a week, and almost every day.
Because Li Zongwei was suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer, during the treatment, his throat ruptured from top to bottom, and even swallowing food became a problem.
At the worst time, Li Zongwei could not speak, and there would be severe pain when eating and drinking, so that his appetite was lost.
Such a situation frightened his wife, Huang Miaozhu, and his mother, who had been taking care of him.
Once, when Li Zongwei refused to eat no matter what, his mother cried and said to him: "When you are sick, you must eat more to get better quickly. ”
Li Zongwei said: "If I can eat, I will absolutely eat, there is no need to force me." ”
Seeing her son say this, Li Zongwei's mother also knew that he really had a bad sore throat and did not eat, but the more so, the more the body could not absorb nutrients, and the more difficult it was to get better.
In the end, the doctor thought of a way to spray a little anesthetic on the throat before each swallowing, and then swallow the food immediately while the anesthetic was not yet strong.
In those days, Li Zongwei relied on this method to reluctantly solve the problem of eating. But even so, he can only eat porridge, rotten noodles and other easily digestible foods.
Proton therapy not only completely ruptured Li Zongwei's throat epidermis, but also caused his neck to dry up and peel, so every time he took a bath, Li Zongwei needed to wrap his neck tightly, otherwise once he got wet, he would be in pain.
Fortunately, Li Zongwei is a strong person, he regards the fight against cancer as a game, and this time, he must win the championship, otherwise he will pay the price of life.
Fortunately, after 33 treatments, the cancer cells in Li Zongwei's body were basically removed, and he successfully reached the criteria for discharge.
On October 7, 2018, Li Zongwei left Taipei and returned to Malaysia.
The next day, he held a press conference, saying that the treatment was ideal and claiming that if the body allowed it, he would definitely come back.
At that time, many people were looking forward to the arrival of this day, but unfortunately, on June 13, 2019, Li Zongwei suddenly announced his retirement, which made everyone's hopes disappointed.
At the press conference, Li Zongwei hid his face and cried bitterly, at that moment, people who knew him knew that he was forced to give up badminton and give up the career of his beloved life.
After retiring from the army, Li Zongwei returned to the family, and his wife Huang Miaozhu was also a badminton player, but she chose to sacrifice her career to take care of her husband and two sons.
For Huang Miaozhu's sacrifice, Li Zongwei has always been in his eyes and is also grateful, so this time, he took the initiative to take on most of the housework and spent a lot of time with his sons every day.
Li Zongwei's eldest son, Li Jiaqian, was born in 2013, and when he understood things, Li Zongwei had already been in the yutan.
At that time, although Li Ka-chian was young, he also knew that his father was the best badminton player in Malaysia, and he and his mother and brother often went to the competition site to cheer li Zongwei up.
Although Li Zongwei no longer plays games, his two sons still feel that he is the most powerful father in the world, because he has not only defeated a large number of famous badminton players, but also defeated cancer.
Li Zongwei spent tens of millions of dollars to successfully fight cancer to make the world sigh that "money can buy life", and his cancer itself has also caused another question, that is, why do athletes like Li Zongwei who exercise regularly still get cancer?
The answer to this question may be seen in the statement of the Malaysian Badminton Association.
According to Yu Xie, Li Zongwei suffers from a genetically caused respiratory disease, so his cancer is likely to be genetically related, and if so, then exercise or not has no impact.
On the other hand, Li Zongwei's nasopharyngeal cancer is highly prevalent in China, especially in South China.
Li Zongwei's ancestral home is Fujian, just in this area, he suffers from cancer, may not be inseparable from the usual living habits.
Fortunately, everything has been settled, and after two years of arduous anti-cancer, Li Zongwei has recovered his health.
However, his body can no longer return to its previous state, so he had to regret retirement, and he was only 37 years old at the time, so he must have been very reluctant to make this decision.