However, encouragement from her family members and her 5-year-old daughter gave her the hope to live on.

"It was not easy to accept the nightmarish truth," she said. "I spent nearly three years to overcome my pain."

She put in great effort to practice writing with her left hand, and do housework with her teeth and feet.

Over time, she regained full functionality for her everyday life.

During the process, her daughter was deeply affected by Zhang's strong will and became a hardworking student at school.

?"Since then, some friends and parents of my daughter's schoolmates began to ask me for my educational experience," she said. "Especially after my daughter got a very good score in the national college entrance exam, or gaokao in 1998, I received more calls and visits from strangers seeking help."