Guo Luping, an obstetrician, says she's proud to be part of a Chinese medical aid program in Tunisia.(Photo provided to China Daily)
When speaking of Guo Luping, a doctor who saved the lives of his wife and son during childbirth a few years ago, Yan Xiaojun, a man from Xinyu city, in East China's Jiangxi province, can't help but feel sad.
Guo is now suffering from cancer.
"My wife cries each time Guo is mentioned," Yan says.
Guo, 40, works at the Maternity and Child Care Center of Xinyu, and has nearly 20 years of experience in obstetrics.
She went on a Chinese medical aid program to Tunisia in November 2014, but was diagnosed with breast cancer in January this year after she returned home for a holiday.
Today, as she stays hospitalized for treatment in Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi, she is keen to return to Tunisia to finish the program.
"Before coming back, I promised several patients that I would deliver their babies," Guo says.
Zhang Yue, director of international cooperation for the province's health and family planning commission, says Guo had volunteered to join the program in Tunisia.
Since 1973, the province, like many other Chinese provinces, has been sending medical professionals to treat patients at local hospitals and provide training to doctors there.
Usually, more than 40 doctors and nurses from Jiangxi are selected to go to Tunisia and Chad every two years, but it is getting difficult to recruit team members, says Zhang.
That is mostly because when a doctor comes back from such a mission in Africa, he or she will very likely lag behind colleagues at home, due to the fast development of China's medical sector.
As people's standard of living improves in China, the allowance and payment such projects give to team members are not as appealing as they used to be, he says.
But for Guo, it seems the decision to enroll into the program was easy.
"I knew it is hard, tiring and even dangerous to work in Tunisia, but I just wanted to broaden my horizons with experience of overseas work. So I took it up," says Guo, who has conducted about 4,000 surgeries and has won several awards at the Xinyu hospital for her service to patients.
"It is a doctor's duty to treat patients and I'm glad to be able to contribute to our country's medical aid program as well."
During her work at a provincial hospital in Tunisia, she performed up to a dozen surgeries in a day as the department of obstetrics and gynecology there is really busy, Guo says.
Local patients trust Chinese doctors, something that makes her proud.
Last July, she noticed a lump in her left breast, which grew larger by October, but she didn't pay much attention. There were too many patients and she was too busy to worry about "small problems", she recalls.
Xiong Qiuyun, a cancer specialist with the Third Hospital of Nanchang and Guo's doctor, says he is sorry that she didn't seek medical treatment earlier.
Guo had surgery soon after the diagnosis, which was successful, but she then asked to leave the hospital before completing a chemotherapy session.
"I thought I could take the chemotherapy drugs with me and have the treatment in Tunisia while working there," Guo says, adding she had bought round-trip tickets when leaving Tunisia.
Xiong has persuaded Guo to keep her plans on hold for the time being.
"In the beginning, I didn't understand her persistence about going back to Tunisia, so I talked to her for more than an hour about her family, her job here and her health condition," says Xiong.
Guo and her husband are both from Xinyu.
"I think she is just like millions of doctors in China, who care about patients and want to do their jobs well. It is only that she cares more intensely," he adds.
According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, since 1963, China has sent about 24,000 medical professionals to 66 countries and regions to help, including 42 countries and regions in Africa, and millions of people abroad have benefited from China's international medical aid program.
