Man repays debt of neighbours' kindness with shoes

Beijing -  A man in southwest China has prepared nearly 400 pairs of cloth shoes as a token of gratitude for his neighbours who once helped his parents decades ago in saving his life as a child, a business daily reported Tuesday.

The 51-year-old Tan Kecheng, who suffers from infantile paralysis, has been preparing the shoes for the last 10 years in Chongqing city, the China Daily reported citing Chongqing Business Daily.

Tan developed high fever when he was just two years old. His parents had no choice other than keeping him at home as they could not afford to take him to any hospital.

A visiting neighbour learned of Tan's situation three days later and mobilised other residents in the area to donate money for Tan's treatment. It helped Tan's family to hospitalise him.

Tan survived but was left with infantile paralysis, a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis.

As Tan's mother always told him to remember their neighbours' kindness, he started making cloth shoes for his neighbours 10 years ago to show his feeling of gratitude towards them.

Today, to prepare shoes, Tan goes out with his walking stick to collect materials, such as used clothes and abandoned tires, as his only income is the social subsidy of 600 yuan ($95) a month. It takes him about a week to make a pair of cloth-based pair of shoes.

So far, Tan has prepared 400 pairs as token of his gratitude to the neighbours.