On the morning of July 8, Huang Jiaxin, an undergraduate student from Tsinghua University's School of Environment (SOE), donated his blood stem cells. As a volunteer of China Marrow Donation Program (CMDP), Huang became the eighth matching donor from Tsinghua University, namely the 99th from Haidian District, the 440th from Beijing, and ultimately the 11615th in China.
In an air force hospital’s hematology department, Huang lay quietly on the bed of the blood collection room. Down from a tube connected to his right arm, blood passed through the apheresis machine where the life-saving stem cells were separated out. Huang’s blood was returned to his body through the other tube linked to his left arm, while the harvested stem cells would then be used to save the life of a patient who suffered from blood diseases.
A group of teachers and students visiting Huang Jiaxin during the harvesting process
Liang Yongqing, Director of the Donation Service Center, Red Cross Society of China Beijing Branch, Liu Li, Secretary General of RCSC Beijing Haidian Branch, Yan Juqun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua Sub-district, Bai Benfeng, Director of the Undergraduate Affairs Management Department, the University Council, Liu Shuming, Chairman of SOE School Council , Xi Jinying, Vice Chairman of SOE School Council, Zhang Ting, Secretary of the Youth League Committee of Tsinghua University, Zhang Jingran, Head of SOE Undergraduate Affairs Working Group together with a number of students came to see Huang in the hospital and send him their warm regards. The young man was much respected for his love, kindness, sense of responsibility and spirit of dedication. The visitors all wished Huang a speedy recovery and that he could return to campus and resume his studies as soon as possible.
Huang, with the harvesting process completed
With Spirits of Service, Bringing Warmth to People
Huang, a student from the 83th class, SOE, is an optimistic and cheerful person with strong senses of responsibility. Huang is a warm-hearted buddy according to his peers.
Huang devotes much of his extracurricular life to social practices. In the 2020 Hubei “Go Back Home” social practice project for college students, Huang’s performance was confirmed as "Excellence", and was later covered by China Youth Daily.
A dedicated volunteer as well, Huang has accumulated 375 service hours during his school years, hoping to serve the society as well as his country through such aggregation of small acts. In the recently concluded celebrations of the centennial of the CPC, Huang volunteered as a grandstand attendant for the art performance "The Great Journey". He said, "As an active menber for party membership, for me it has been an unparalleled party lecture to witness the CPC’s centennial on such an occasion, to revisit not only the hardships it faced, but also the glorious journey it has made in the past century. I also realized that we young people, as successors, will play important roles in the CPC’s next 100 years. ‘Youth for Next Century’s Prosperity’ is not simply a slogan, but rather urges us to put it into real action."
Huang’s staff ID for the special celebration event of the CPC’s centennial
Huang, while sticking to his original purpose of "serving students, improving oneself", holds important positions for social services both in the university’s Youth League Committee and the SOE, where he demonstrates himself as a good organizer, communicator, and a strong leader. Huang currently sits as Chair of the SOE’s Students’ Union. When running for the position, Huang conceptualized his philosophy as “Innovation, Creativity, Gentleness and Constancy”.
Huang's campaign poster for Chair of the Students’ Union, SOE
Inextricably Bound up with Blood Donation
Since October 2018, Huang has been an active participant in every single blood donation event organized by the university’s RCSC. He voluntarily joined the CMDP the first time he donated blood. As Huang makes donation biannually, such high frequency of participation has made him inextricably bound up with the donation of stem cells.
Huang said that he had met all the student donors of stem cells at Tsinghua, and he knew about them. Before offering his blood sample and joining the CMDP in 2018, Huang had already been involved in an interview with the university's first donor; during the COVID-19 pandemic, Huang served as a volunteer at the campus site of nucleic acid testing together with Zhou Zuoyong, Tsinghua's fifth donor. In April 2020, Huang was informed of being the match with a patient. Without hesitation, he decided to donate his stem cells, and consulted several donors about donation procedures as well as its dos and don’ts.
To ensure a successful donation and to save a life, Huang made efforts to reschedule his study and work, postponing his plan of volunteer teaching in Sichuan.
Rekindling Hopes, Lightening up Lives
When sharing his thoughts and feelings about stem cell donation, Huang recalled:
“During my internship back home in 2020 at the township government, I met a child suffering from blood diseases. At that time, all that we could do was to appeal for donations to fix his life problems, but there was nothing we could do to restore him to health. Now that I’m given the chance to save other people, and to rekindle their hopes for life, no doubt I will take it as my bounden duty! It is not only what I have always wanted to do, but makes up for what I wasn’t able to do back then in the meanwhile.”
Huang, who has no hesitation in reaching out at a patient’s need, brings the light of life. It is his helping hand that sustains a fragile life!
The Tsinghua student branch of RCSC has included the CMDP registration in its voluntary blood donation events since 2016 fall semester, hoping to make its own contribution to the stem cell matching and donation in China. With the CMDP information accessible, students, faculty and staff may choose to join CMDP on a voluntary basis apart from blood donation. Volunteers can then donate their stem cells once being matched to certain patients. Since the CMDP’s introduction to these events, up to 100 students and faculty members have registered on site for the program annually.
In July 2020, Zhou Zuoyong, a Class 2014 undergraduate and Class 2020 postgraduate from the SOE, volunteered to donate his stem cells. As Tsinghua's fifth matching donor, he also kindled in others the light of life.
Zhou Zuoyong, who donated his stem cells in 2020
Up to now, nearly 3,000 volunteers from Tsinghua University have registered for the Beijing branch of CMDP, among whom 8 students have become matching donors and volunteered to make their donations. What they did truly speaks of the spirit of service, the embodiment of great love and altruism!
