Changing Perceptions

Ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Zhang Zefeng talks to four young people with uncommon afflictions, who are working to raise public awareness of rare genetic diseases.

Growing up with congenital heart disease and epilepsy, Pan Longfei had a fairly eventful childhood.

Seeing doctors and taking medication were an indispensable part of his early life, and he was physically the smallest and weakest among his peers. Schools saw him as a risk and parents thought his condition was contagious, so Pan was elbowed out of schools about five times. It took him 10 years to complete primary school.