On April 21, Cai Lei, the former vice president of JD.com and a fighter for ALS, was interviewed by CCTV News.
In the fall of 2019, 41-year-old Cai Lei was diagnosed with ALS. The incidence of this rare disease is about 1.6 per 100,000, and the cure rate is still 0 despite the rapid development of biomedical technology. The vast majority of patients will reach the end of life within 2-5 years. But Cai Lei is not willing to do this, he is used to challenges and hard work. Two months later, he decided to use himself as a weapon to fight ALS to the end.
Cai Lei chose a path that few people believed would succeed - to promote drug research, try to break ALS and find a chance to live.
Cai Lei used all his connections and resources, swore that "Lao Tzu will do it with it", and vowed "either die or get rid of this disease". It was his last battle: building a database, seeking funding and scientist support, advancing a drug pipeline to support tens of thousands of ALS patients, livestreaming, writing an autobiography, and last year's final bullet: donating brain and spinal cord tissue to medical research with more than 1,000 patients.
In the "decisive battle" of ALS, Cai Lei set up a scientific research team to develop drugs and worked more than 16 hours a day. "Although I am already a disabled person, I can still do something valuable for society in the face of death. In the new year, Cai Lei said that he should believe in the "power of belief" and hope that the cause of "breaking the ice" will make new progress.
A year ago, he wrote "Believe", documenting his journey with fate—doubt, despair, disobedience, and counterattack. In the book, he is desperate Saburo, Don Quixote, Sisyphus, and Sun Wukong, with a terrifying combat power, trying all kinds of unbelievable treatment methods, and surviving between despair and hope.
This year is the fifth year that he has been battling ALS, and his body is approaching the end of the disease.
In January, Cai Lei talked about his recent physical condition, saying that he needed someone to support him from getting up to a distance of 5 meters from the bathroom, and his swallowing and phlegm coughing conditions had also deteriorated, and now his breathing had begun to fail, and he had to wear a ventilator all night, and his body muscles had declined in an all-round way, and he bluntly said that "death is very close." His wife, Duan Rui, said in a previous interview that she was prepared for the worst.
"The spine is crooked", "the tongue and lower lip are atrophied", "I sleep on a ventilator every day", "I am tied with a rope in the shower and hung on the wall", seemingly ordinary and small actions in daily life, if you are not careful, can be fatal.
But he didn't stop working, "at least seven or eight key colleagues worked with me every day until 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening. ”
"I thought, I have to be intubated and angry again, and I am not guilty, and I have tried my best, I will go first. At the end of last year, he thought about dying, "many patients cry and cry, if you all die, we have no hope."
Is there no hope?
"I can't look at it this way", even if I have been experiencing failure, Cai Lei believes that the efforts have not been in vain, "Last year's clinical practice was equivalent to the past ten years, and now the team is getting bigger and bigger, even if I can't, this career will continue." ”
"It's useless to be pessimistic and complain, all you can do every day is to keep working hard." To Cai Lei's surprise, such a "Believe", "It turns out that it can help not only patients, but also many difficult people." ”
At the beginning of this year, Cai Lei announced that he and his wife would donate another 100 million yuan to support scientific research projects to overcome ALS. A small part of it comes from the royalties of "Believe", and most of it comes from the live broadcast of "Icebreaker Station", which is played every day almost uninterrupted.
Life too. It's like what is written in the book - the stove will not be wiped because someone is seriously ill, the bottled water will still have to be replaced after drinking, and life will go on as usual.
About my mother - "Mom buys some, Mom places an order", almost every day, my mother will stay in the live broadcast room, and Cai Lei will sometimes shout across the screen. "It's not worrying about me, but I don't want her to come. After his condition deteriorated, Cai Lei's speech became more and more slurred, and he was reluctant to call, "Watch the live broadcast, that's my best state." ”
About his lover - a few years ago, because of his crazy work in an extremely overdrawn way, Cai Lei often quarreled with his lover Duan Rui, "Now I don't quarrel, I can't quarrel." I only hope that she, not pessimistic, not sad, this is my greatest hope. Duan Rui's schedule is full, and in order to take care of the live broadcast room, the former partner of an accounting firm started from scratch and did his best.
About the son - not much interaction, in the morning. Cai Lei couldn't raise his hands, and sometimes, his son would come over and hug him. "The teacher said that he was very smart", referring to his son who had just learned Go for a month, Cai Lei said, "The family can't play him, I believe he will become an excellent talent".
"I'm still looking forward to the day when I get rid of ALS before I collapse. ”
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When Cai Lei struggled to say this, the window was full of early spring green, and the sun was a little dazzling. "The time given to me is too short, if you give me ten years, kill it in seconds. Cai Lei smiled lightly.
Source: CCTV News