Boy in China blows money donated for dying father’s brain cancer treatment on mobile phone games
- The boy spent the money while he was using his father’s phone to play online games when the dad was undergoing treatment
- The father was the family’s sole income source after the mother died 10 years earlier
A 12-year-old boy in China spent money donated by relatives to pay for his critically ill father’s cancer treatment on mobile games, local media has reported.
The boy, surnamed Huang, from Fushun county in Sichuan province, southwestern China, spent 3,800 yuan (US$560) in July at the Xiaomi Game Centre, a mobile phone game platform.
The theft occurred when the boy was with his father during a hospital visit and used his father’s mobile phone, the Chengdu Business News reported.
His father, Huang Zhengxiang, has late-stage brain cancer. Due to his family’s modest income, doctors decided to adopt a conservative and less costly treatment method, the report said.
The senior Huang was the family’s sole breadwinner after his wife died in an accident 10 years ago. Before falling ill in June, the father worked in construction in different mainland cities, leaving his sons, aged 15 and 12, at home.
His relatives all pitched in and donated money for his treatment after his diagnosis. They only realised the money was stolen by the junior Huang when a relative went to pay the medical fees after his father died at the end of July.