HEFEI: A total of 224 torchbearers will relay the Olympic torch through Hefei, capital city of Anhui province today.

While most runners feel their run of just 48 m is a little short, 15-year-old Tan Haimei said the length is perfect for her.

As the youngest torchbearer for the Anhui event, Tan was afforded the opportunity of a test run yesterday. And the tough-as-teak teenager found the torch, weighing just less than a kilogram, much heavier than she expected.

"If there were 200 m for me to run, that would be too much. I don't mean that I don't like to carry the torch, but that I am afraid I might not be able to relay it well if the run goes too long," the hardy 8th-grade student, whose red complexion and cheerful spirit belie a tough life, said.

After being abandoned by her mother six months after her birth, her father later lost his left arm during a work accident, leaving Tan to live with her grandparents and eke out an existence collecting garbage in Hefei. Ever since she was five, she has been a great help to her family, tending to various chores while maintaining top grades at school.

But these feats are not why she won national fame in 2006 as one of the "Persons Who Move Us Most", together with China's major heroes such as astronaut Yang Liwei and NBA star Yao Ming.

It all started about four years ago when Tan and her grandparents could no longer afford the high costs of living in the city and moved back to the countryside.

Soon after she started at a new school, Tan discovered that most of her classmates had also been left to family elders, with their parents away in cities for work.

Owing to a lack of parental care and love, some of the so-called "left-behind children" tended to skip school or develop bad addictions such as smoking and playing video games.

Tan said that, despite her permanent smile, she in fact shared their loneliness and often their helplessness.

"If we get together and help each other, we won't be lonely anymore," Tan said, explaining why she started "The Team for Left-behind Children," a project aimed to bring together left-behind children for mutual assistance and community volunteer efforts.

Although it is flourishing now, things were not so easy in the beginning.

Once Tan was slapped in the face when she tried to dissuade a classmate from playing games in an Internet cafe.

"He told me to mind my business," said Tan. "That was hard. I cried all the way home and swore not to bother to help any more. But my grandparents told me that if I really meant to help, I should at least let the other children know it."

Tan has since found that persistence is the most effective way to get her message cross to other lonely youngsters.

Her team quickly grew from within her own class to the whole school, then across the city and province to encompass the whole country.

The torch will continue its relay within Anhui province in the next two days, visiting the cities of Huainan, Wuhu, Jixi and Huangshan.

(China Daily 05/28/2008 page7)