Raising awareness of ALS

Updated: 2011-11-29 19:05

By Sun Chi (chinadaily.com.cn)

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Raising awareness of ALS

Wang Jia, an ALS patient uses his eyes to control a laptop, designing logos for a website in Beijingon Nov 18. [Photo/CFP]

Just imagine if your body started to freeze up little by little. legs today, arms, fingers tomorrow and finally the muscles controlling your vocal chords and eyeballs. Life ending in desperation. The scene may be too cruel and inconceivable for most to consider, but groups of such people do exist among us, known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)patients.

ALS patient gradually lose mobility and die from respiratory failure. The most well known ALS patient is Professor Stephen Hawking.

Cui Liying, director of the Neurological Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital estimates there are about 200,000 ALS patients in China, according to rates from other counties.

Wang Jia: communicate with his eyes

Wang Jia is a 28-year-old graphic designer who has suffered ALS since 2007. Nowadays his body is almost “frozen up” except for his eyeballs and right index finger. His bony body needs helps to do any single movement, which is in contrast to a photo hung on the wall at his home from a time when he was healthy.

Wang uses his right index finger and eyeballs to control a laptop to communicate with other people. The laptop displays the character or letter which the eyes focus on. It is a hard and slow work. He can only spell out less than 30 Chinese characters in half an hour.

But there is always a power to push him forward and make him tough. "He often spells out, ‘I can't be down’, "said his mother.

Wang Jia “eyeballs” logos for charity

Since Wang became an ALS patient, he has committed to doing charity and public welfare, hoping to attract more attention on ALS patients. He donated 3,000 yuan from a magazine for his Wenchuan (an earthquake disaster area in Sichuan province) publicity posters. As he focuses on charity and public welfare, Wang still finds himself useful to the community.

Once in a public welfare activity, Wang Jia heard that a website needed a logo for a public welfare platform. Wang said “It is my way to devote to public welfare to design the logo for the platform.”

He eyeballs his thoughts through his laptop then his younger brother realizes the design. But Wang has difficulty to precisely express his thoughts in details such as colors and shapes, therefore he usually has to modify them again.

Wang Jia has designed four logos for the website and his deeds have drawn more than 100,000 people's attention to ALS patients.