Lung patient selling 6 meter cross stitch to pay for treatment

Zhang Qingwei (right) and his friends display his cross stitch, which portrays his stitch replica of a famous painting, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. [Photo by Lan Yang/CFP]

A lung patient in Changchun, Jilin province, who needs money to pay for treatment is selling a six meter cross stitch piece, a replica of a famous painting that took him two years to complete, cfp.cn reported on Thursday.

Zhang Qingwei, 47, a mine worker who retired due to industrial-related illness, created Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in cross stitch after learning the craft during treatment.

Zhang was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, a serious lung disease caused by breathing dust for years.

He started receiving long-term treatment in 2012 and learned to cross stich from a nurse. He said he was the only man in the building doing cross stitch but it distracted him from his illness and became a part of his life.

"Now I can stitch for eight or nine hours a day," Zhang said.

He has 11 cross stitch works at hand. The largest piece is a six-meter-long replica of an ancient painting, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which took him two years to finish.

He said he wants to sell this piece to make money for a lung transplant, which could cost 600,000 yuan($91,080).

Zhang is in the third stage of pneumoconiosis and his lung function is severely impaired.

"I'm only 47 and I have a 26-year-old daughter. I don't want to leave this world this early," Zhang said. "I don't know how long I can live."