Chinese TV host Qiu Yuanyuan died Wednesday, 100 days since she gave birth to her child following her sacrifice to battle cancer without the aid of chemotherapy after learning that she was pregnant.
Family and friends of the 26-year-old host of Zhengzhou TV Station's "Who's the Winner" mourn her death after she died of cancer, but celebrate her greatest sacrifice when she gave birth to a healthy baby boy following her refusal to undergo chemotherapy.
Qui was overjoyed after learning that she was pregnant. But bliss later turned into horror when she was diagnosed with a late-stage cancer of the womb.
When Qui, a resident of Zhengzhou in northern China's Henan Province, learned that undergoing chemotherapy would be fatal to her unborn child, she had decided against it.
"If I cannot choose both, I'd rather let my child live," her husband, Zhang Qixuan, recalled her saying after expressing the joy that she felt about her marriage and pregnancy.
According to Zhang, it had been a difficult decision for both of them. However, giving up her life was a sacrifice Qui was willing to make in order to save their child.
"She was brave and optimistic and believed life is beautiful. She understood things would not always be perfect, but she never regretted her choice," he said.
After news broke of the TV host's passing, many expressed their sympathy and admiration at how she handled her situation, with one even citing that she made a wise but helpless decision, while another noted that a mother's love is so great it knows no bounds.
On the other hand, some criticized her for sacrificing her life and leaving a helpless child with no mother to take care of him.
"It's not a beautiful thing if a child is born with no care and love from its natural mother," one netizen wrote in China's Twitter-like microblogging platform Sina Weibo, while another deemed her as a "heartless mother" for "leaving a little life alone in the world."