China News Service, Yichang, December 2 (Cheng Caiqi, Yu Kexin, Dong Xiaobin) "These children are my concern. I'can't get out' here, and I don't want to get out of here." Yangping, Yangping Town, Yuan'an County, Hubei Province Zhang Qingmei, a female middle school teacher, said on the 1st.

In the past 6 years, suffering from cancer, she has not left the podium and insisted on her passion for education.

　　In June 2013, Zhang Qingmei, who lives in Dangyang City, graduated from undergraduate school, and was assigned to Yangping Middle School to engage in language teaching after enrollment.

In early 2016, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during the physical examination.

Zhang Qingmei said that she was scared when she was first diagnosed, but she still actively cooperated with the treatment and tried her best to stabilize her condition within a controllable range.

　　Only one month after the operation, Zhang Qingmei ignored the dissuasion of colleagues and relatives and friends and insisted on being discharged from the hospital before the beginning of school and returning to the stage.

Since thyroid cancer is a lifelong cancer, it must be checked and treated continuously.

Beginning in 2016, she has to go to the city hospital for follow-up visits every month and insist on taking medication every day.

Zhang Qingmei preparing lessons in the school office. Photo by Li Shuangjun

　　"Ms. Zhang always said nothing, but we can see that she still struggles sometimes." said Chen Kejin, the principal of Yangping Middle School. Under such circumstances, Zhang Qingmei still refused the school's arrangement to reduce her workload.

Now she gives a class on behalf of the language class, also serves as the head of the grade group, and also undertakes some additional administrative tasks in the school.

　　According to Chen Kejin, the teachers at the school have come and gone over the years, but the young Zhang Qingmei has always been here to accompany the growth of the children from time to time.

In the second half of 2018, Zhang Qingmei also voluntarily gave up the opportunity to work in a unit directly under the county and insisted on teaching in Yangping Middle School.

　　"I like to stand on the podium to teach. Since I taught here, I can't let go of these children. Their smiling faces have also given me the courage to fight diseases." Zhang Qingmei said that most of the students in Yangping Middle School work because of their parents. Many of them are left-behind children, and there are a few children whose families are more difficult, and they need more care.

　　Since teaching, Zhang Qingmei has received many awards from Yichang City and Yuan'an County due to her outstanding teaching performance. Her colleagues also appreciated Zhang Qingmei's professionalism.

"I'm just an ordinary teacher, and I don't think what I'm doing is anything special. Whether I'm sick or not, I will stick to the podium." She said.

(over)