Restoring health and hope in rural China

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At its peak in the 1990s, the program partnered with hospitals in remote locations across 10 provinces, including Shaanxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

However, now there are only five such cooperation centers left. Key reasons for the decline in such partnerships are the central government's policies on enhancing healthcare in the countryside and promoting economic development in backward areas, Leung adds.

But there are some local hospitals that have "broken" partnership agreements with Leung's team in pursuit of profit, he says. "A hospital can get thousands of yuan from an orthopedic patient, if the patient is treated by its own staff."

Since 2002, Leung has worked on newer ways to help rural patients.

In 2006, he launched a medical insurance program in Fuping county in Shaanxi province after his team raised funds in Hong Kong to buy medical insurance for locals who cannot afford it.

What's more, for families with very little income, the program also grants subsidized inpatient treatment, Leung says.

"It needs joint effort from society and the government to make life easier for the underprivileged people, and Leung has been working on this for more than 20 years," Jennie Mak Ling, a Hong Kong resident who has known Leung for decades, says.

"Even if the money he raises cannot help all the people who deserve such help, at least he tries, and has helped some."