Cai Lei, former vice-president of JD Group, reveals how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis (诊断) set him on the path to find a cure.
Born to a farmer’s family in 1978, Cai has been deeply influenced by his father’s idea that “one has to fight for himself”. Since primary school, he has been getting up before 5 am to run and study English. At 29, Cai became chief tax manager in Vanke Co. In 2011, he joined JD Group, where he led his team to develop the first electronic invoice (发票) in China. Wherever he worked, he always tried his best to create new value.
Diagnosed with ALS in 2019, he would have only two to five years to live. ALS is usually caused by the gradual death of motor neurons(神经元), which makes normally easy movements like drinking water, eating, going to the bathroom, and speaking impossible. Finally, patients will completely rely on machines and others’ help to survive. So far, only two medicines are available to treat ALS, but they can at most extend patients’ life for several months without improving their living quality.
To develop effective drugs is the only way to save ALS patients. However, the intense effort required, which is unprofitable for so rare an illness, makes it a mission almost impossible. It usually takes 10-15 years to complete the research cycle for a new drug and the cost is $1-3billion. Take Alzheimer’s disease for example. Between 2000 and 2017, investment in new drugs for this more common disease was over $600 billion, and 99.6% of the research on more than 300 drugs failed.
Cai decided to take matters into his own hands. He started his own medical technology company, built his own research team, and volunteered to try more than 30 new medicines which all failed. However, he has decided that even if all efforts prove fruitless, he will continue. To shoot the last bullet, he has decided to donate his brain and spinal cord for scientific research. He will not die for nothing.
4. What kind of person is Cai Lei?
A.Extremely gifted and ambitious. |
B.Hard-working and warm-hearted. |
C.Quite responsible and dependable. |
D.Highly motivated and strong-willed. |
5. What might happen to people diagnosed with ALS?
A.Losing the ability to think and speak normally. |
B.Maintaining a normal life by taking medicines. |
C.Dying within months of a confirmed diagnosis. |
D.Needing external assistance to survive in the end. |
6. Why is Alzheimer’s disease mentioned in paragraph 4?
A.To talk about the severity of Alzheimer. |
B.To prove Alzheimer to be a common disease. |
C.To explain the difficulty of finding a cure for ALS. |
D.To ask for more investment in the research on ALS. |
7. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Joint efforts to fight ALS | B.A man who never gives in |
C.ASL, a rare deadly disease | D.Suffering of a man with ALS |