{"id":546095,"date":"2026-06-21T02:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T02:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/546095\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T02:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T02:30:14","slug":"only-death-can-stop-me-terminally-ill-chinese-tycoon-works-12-hours-daily-to-cure-als","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/546095\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Only death can stop me\u2019: terminally ill Chinese tycoon works 12 hours daily to cure ALS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A former Chinese e-commerce executive in the final stages of a rare disease is still working 12-hour days, devoting what time he has left to accelerating the search for a cure.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Cai Lei, 48, a former vice-president of JD.com, one of China\u2019s largest e-commerce companies, has spent seven years battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable disease that progressively attacks motor neurons.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His condition has recently deteriorated to an advanced stage. Unable to move or speak, Cai can now communicate and work only by using eye-tracking technology to type on a computer.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His assistant told the mainland media outlet Yitiao that Cai has survived several near-death episodes, including one in which phlegm blocked his throat, leaving him unable to breathe for about a minute.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cai Lei, above, pictured attached to medical equipment in a hospital bed. Photo: Yitiao\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/22ccccbc-a434-4450-81c3-beb93a7e6d6b_c77cd34c.jpg\" title=\"Cai Lei, above, pictured attached to medical equipment in a hospital bed. Photo: Yitiao\"\/>Cai Lei, above, pictured attached to medical equipment in a hospital bed. Photo: Yitiao<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Even the smallest movements now require extraordinary support. Four carers are needed to help him rise from a chair or return to bed, while muscle atrophy causes him pain and numbness after sitting for long periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Chinese e-commerce executive in the final stages of a rare disease is still working 12-hour days,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[6276,9932,84190,234136,82420,76015,1798,108330,676,1793,26545,234125,234127,62806,72532,33552,60507,234129,234135,381,5214,12771,30028,234123,6930,16877,52563,73543,75928,234131,2594,9413,24929,234122,7266,234128,685,686,234132,5006,4595,18,1649,234130,22406,234126,8382,3691,20083,63472,150270,38192,12668,3288,3534,135,5489,234120,3293,234137,9973,19,234121,19597,234133,17,26609,53746,234134,693,66214,234138,825,81206,7711,19354,3294,5053,234124,6363,147860,7219,149,3283,33059,7227,842,93531,7981,66242,68393,172,21983,4567,11694,3110,2431,1114,1387,19318,4534,9114,17362,1422,9434,82,38823,49493,94,43780,234119,144241,40347,129687,228193,11808,699],"class_list":["post-546095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-account","tag-advanced","tag-agency","tag-agony","tag-als","tag-arm","tag-assistant","tag-battling","tag-bed","tag-beijing","tag-breakthrough","tag-breathe","tag-carers","tag-chair","tag-chairman","tag-changes","tag-charging","tag-charitable","tag-cherish","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-clinical","tag-collective","tag-communicate","tag-companies","tag-computer","tag-condition","tag-courage","tag-cure","tag-darkest","tag-data","tag-death","tag-dedicated","tag-deteriorated","tag-development","tag-devote","tag-disease","tag-doctors","tag-doses","tag-drug","tag-e-commerce","tag-eire","tag-episode","tag-established","tag-executive","tag-extraordinary","tag-eye","tag-faith","tag-families","tag-fees","tag-fighter","tag-former","tag-fraud","tag-gene","tag-graduate","tag-health","tag-history","tag-hospita","tag-human","tag-hymn","tag-ice","tag-ie","tag-incurable","tag-injection","tag-intensive","tag-ireland","tag-jd-com","tag-laboratories","tag-live-streams","tag-medical","tag-mind","tag-miracles","tag-money","tag-motor","tag-move","tag-movements","tag-muscle","tag-mutation","tag-near-death","tag-neurons","tag-numbness","tag-online","tag-pain","tag-patients","tag-pharmacy","tag-platform","tag-positive","tag-powerful","tag-products","tag-programmes","tag-rare","tag-research","tag-responsibility","tag-scientists","tag-sclerosis","tag-selling","tag-sitting","tag-social-media","tag-son","tag-speak","tag-stage","tag-station","tag-strength","tag-support","tag-team","tag-technology","tag-throat","tag-tracking","tag-treatment","tag-trial","tag-tycoon","tag-type","tag-users","tag-vice-president","tag-vulnerable","tag-wife","tag-working"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}