"It is not easy to carry out the Lifeline Express campaign," says Mrs. Fong Wong. "However, the more I'm involved, the more I enjoy what I'm doing. When I see cataract victims walk in light after their operations, I can hardly hold back the tears. No words can express how happy I am for them!"

This is how Mrs. Fong Wong Kut-man, or Nellie, executive president of the Lifeline Express Committee and member of the CPPCC, feels about her six years of painstaking efforts.

A survey by the Ministry of Public Health shows that there are some 4 million cataract victims on China's mainland. This figure is estimated to increase by 400,000 every year. Most of the victims are from poverty-stricken areas, and live in darkness because they can't afford the expensive operation.

Mrs. Fong Wong and some celebrities in Hong Kong decided to donate funds to build a mobile hospital on a train that would travel to the mainland, extending the friendship of Hong Kong's people prior to the region's return to the motherland in 1997. Not only would the mobile hospital provide free cataract operations for people from poverty-stricken areas on the mainland, but it would also offer free public health education, academic exchanges, and free medical staff training. The sponsors and the Ministry of Public Health named the mobile hospital the Lifeline Express.

July 1, 1997 saw the departure of the first specially-designed Lifeline Express from Kowloon to its first destination, Fuyang City, Anhui Province. The Express consists of four carriages equipped with state-of-the-art medical facilities, including a clinic, a test room, an operation room, wards, and doctor's offices.

In 1999, another mobile hospital was put into operation. So far, the hospitals have conducted 27,000 cataract removals and held training classes for over 3,000 ophthalmologists, who are from 30 regions in 18 provinces and cities in China. Among the patients who have fully recovered, the youngest is 4 years old, and the oldest 90 years old. Some of them had suffered from cataracts for many years, while others had had the condition since birth.

Behind the 27,000 pairs of eyes that have been brought out of the darkness, are 27,000 families that are happy once again, and owe the Lifeline Express a great debt of gratitude.

Each mobile hospital costs 17 million yuan, and every year, it costs some 8 million yuan for it to travel around China. Since 1997, the first Lifeline Express has consumed approximately 60 million yuan.

Mrs. Fong Wong has tried many ways to raise funds in Hong Kong. Each year, she helps organize large and small fundraising activities, and three years ago, she established an organization in Hong Kong known as the Friends of the Lifeline Express. The members of the organization are from all walks of life, and they visit the areas where the campaign is involved, learning about the life of cataract victims. These activities have raised considerable funds for the campaign.

Thanks to the support of people from all circles in Hong Kong, the Lifeline Express has raised a total of 130 million yuan to help cataract sufferers.

The campaign wouldn't be as successful without the enormous contribution of medical teams, consisting of outstanding ophthalmologists and other medical staff from Hong Kong and the mainland.

"According to the contract," remarks Mrs. Fong Wong, "each of the medical staff must work for at least one year on the Lifeline Express. The only place for them to eat and sleep is the train, and they only travel to poverty-stricken areas. It is undoubtedly a great pressure for them to be far away from home, live in a narrow space, and work extremely hard.

"One day I went to visit the staff on a train, and a woman doctor cried in my arms. She said her little daughter was sick and was asking, 'Where's mummy?'"

Thanks to the great endeavor of Mrs. Fong Wong and her colleagues, the third mobile hospital became operational on March 1, 2003. Together with its sister trains, the newly established Lifeline Express is now working in three provinces: Sichuan, Hunan, and Guizhou.

According to the plan, 9,000 cataract sufferers from poverty-stricken areas will receive surgery by the end of 2003.

Information for making a donation:

Account number of the China Lifeline Express Foundation: 01227608094001

Bank: Business Hall of the Headquarters of the Bank of China

Telephone: (0086-10) 6528 9913

(China Pictorial June 2, 2003)