Mike was a 45 year old Canadian teacher who worked at a location in Suzhou. He became quite ill and was taken to a local hospital. The institution he worked for paid his medical fees but, after a week in hospital, the financial limit of the health cover was reached. Mike had no insurance of his own.

His physical condition began deteriorating and he had to be taken to a specialist hospital in Shanghai, where he spent a further 5 weeks. He survived, but just. He had no medical insurance of his own, was physically incapable of travelling on his own, and had accumulated a huge medical debt which he had no way of paying.

His family and friends in Canada rallied round, but there was still insufficient money to pay the costs of his medical treatment and get him home. The last that we heard about Mike was that his sister was trying to arrange to have him taken home via a charity. We hope she managed.