PAUL WITHERS, regional managing director of U.K.-based Mainetti Group, has been nominated as one of the "loving persons" of Shenzhen for initiating a charity drive to save a Shenzhen employee suffering from leukemia, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday (Feb 7).

Withers launched the charity drive among Mainetti's employees worldwide July 2004 after learning that Yang Xiaochao, a female worker at the company's Shenzhen branch, had contracted leukemia.

Yang, 24, from Southwest China's Sichuan Province, had been working for the company for only six months when she was diagnosed with the deadly disease. Her father, a teacher with a meager income, was unable to afford the expansive treatment.

Withers, who is responsible for the company's Asian operations, received a plea for help from Yang's colleagues July 10, 2004, three days after the girl was diagnosed, the newspaper said.

The next day, the company's head office in London held a meeting and decided to set up a 1-million-yuan fund for her. Meanwhile, an e-mail about Yang's situation was sent to the company's branches worldwide, and soon donations worth over 300,000 yuan flooded in, according to the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

The company has been shouldering Yang's medical expenses, which has amounted to over 600,000 yuan. It continues to pay wages to Yang, although she cannot work now.

Yang, who is hopeful of recovering after a matching donor was found for her, lives in an apartment in Shenzhen rented by the company and receives chemotherapy from time to time. If she could receive a stem cell transplant, her disease may be cured, said Zeng Zhiguang, an administrative director with the company's Shenzhen branch.

Earlier, doctors found two matching donors for her, but the two did not donate their stem cells.

In an earlier interview with the Shenzhen Daily, Withers said the company helped Yang simply because "it is the right thing to do."

A total of 30 people will be nominated as this year's "loving persons," a government-run program to award those who have been caring for others. Ten people will be selected.

Editor: Wing