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Do you know Dankook University’s ‘Nick Vujicic’, Ms. Shin Ho-Bin?
Writer 마스터
Date 2013.09.03 (Modified Date : 2013.09.17)
View Count 4,527
Thumbnail /images/Bbs/0/1378171578561_thumbnail.jpg

On July 19 (Fri), 2pm,
A woman entered the Law Scholarship Center of the Jukjeon Campus in a wheelchair with her father.
She burst into tears as two professors warmly welcomed her when she got out of the elevator on the 5th floor. She was there to meet her mentors, professors Cho Sung-Yong and Kim Suk-Hyun (From the Law Department at the College of Law).

“I wanted to come here so much. For the past several years, I have been struggling with the illness so I couldn’t visit school. But now I am here. Since the school moved over here and I live in a nearby town, Suji, I could come. It’s been 10 years already.”

Ms. Shin Ho-Bin.
On 2002, she entered the Seoul campus as a law student with a full 4-year scholarship. However, it was the next year, her sophomore year, that this passionate scholar with so much potential as an attorney, who even started to take law tests from her freshmen year, had to stop her studies.

In her freshmen year, she felt tired and powerless and eventually she had to leave the school after her sophomore year because her illness became so severe that she could not bear even simple daily activities. This was the start of her long fight against the illness. At that time, she did not know what her illness was, so she had to go around to many hospitals, and she was finally diagnosed with the illness named ‘Scleroma.’ Among all Scleroma disease, her illness was called ‘Systemic Sclerosis’ which was known to have the most severe symptoms. (*Systemic Sclerosis’ is an illness that accompanies the thickening or hardening of skin, blood vessel, and internal organs.)

The life of this passionate 20 year old, who dreamt and invested in her future as a successful lawyer slowly started to change from that day. With the hope to be cured soon, she started to fight against her illness but her symptoms progressively worsened.
At that time, she was a healthy 175 cm tall woman, but she became more and more weak every day and her health and even her youth quickly worsened with her symptoms. Her parents sacrificed their lives to cure their first born child; her father quit his job to support her daughter and her mother kept on working to support the family. However, as her symptoms did not show much improvement, Ms. Shin got tired of dealing with the illness and slowly insulated her mind from the world.

Regardless of the family’s effort and various treatments, her illness got worse. In 2009, she even had to cut off one of her toes because her nerve system started to die in her hands and feet. Finally, she was given a death sentence by a doctor on November 2011. She barely survived each day counting the days until her death, being dependent on an oxygen mask, but miraculously she recovered from the illness. After that she started to communicate with the world to live a meaningful life with her remaining years.

“When I was given a death sentence, but recovered slowly after that, a thought came to me. I decided to spend my newly given lifetime to do something meaningful. That’s why I started to write.”

To leave a small mark on the world against the destined short life that might be left to her, she started to write and upload her stories on an internet community site which she often visited. She also wrote letters to the people she respected.
The people from her online community sent her a book made of the short replies readers left under her postings, and many people from various levels of life including nun Lee Hae-In, poet Koeun, Seoul mayor Park Won-Sun, celebrity Cha In-Pyo, baseball player Park Chan-Ho, and Dankook University Chancellor Chang Ho-Sung sent replies with sincere encouragement and sympathy to her plight. Chancellor Chang Ho-Sung introduced her to a well known Oriental medical doctor in China and helped her to get treatment.

She was encouraged by the replies and the world as she started to communicate. However, her pain did not end there. On October 2012, because of severe pain, her legs had to be cut off. After recovering from the precipice between life and death numerous times, she published a book called ‘Shin Ho-Bin’s Calling out Me’ (published by Miraejihyang) last March with her writings from the past several years. This book contains her writings and her father’s efforts and thoughts from the last 10 years.

After the book was published, she met various people but in her mind, her inability to finish university was the one thing that left an empty spot in her heart. She had a longing for the university life she could not enjoy in the past, first because of the hard studying from her freshmen year and secondly because of her illness. However, since the university moved from Hannam-dong in Seoul to Jukjeon-dong in Yongin city, she finally had a chance to visit the university again.

“At first, I cried a lot and cursed the world. However, as I passed by death’s door many times, I started to think about how to live a real life with the rest of the time I have left. I want to write books and communicate with many others. Since the university I attended in the past is nearby, I really wanted to visit here. I am very happy to be here. It’s like my wish has come true. Not everyone will live a life like me, but I hope you do your best in your given life.”

Even though she was so thin and weak due to her long fight against the illness and because she could only drink milk as she could not digest food, a smile did not leave her face. She remembered her day of admission clearly when she was having a conversation with her mentor. She was sending positive energy and hope to us by living her life with her best effort with a big bright smile. Her cheerful and bright voice brightened the surroundings when she took a commemorative picture with law school students and scholars after the university visit.

‘To be cured, you not only have to be honest, but you also need to sincerely admit the current situation without any prejudice. You need courage to face mistakes, stubbornness, anger and even pain. I could submit myself to that reality but when I thought of the way to not cry and strengthen myself against the difficult situations, I could not help but to smile because all I could think of was to endure as much as I could.”