Vietnamese street vendor stands by cancer-stricken adopted daughter

Eleven years ago, Huynh Thi Ngoc Diep, from the southern city of Can Tho, brought home a little girl who was abandoned only 20 days after she was born.

The woman, who sells sticky rice on the street, named her adopted daughter Ngoc Nu and raised her together with her son.

Diep said that 10 years before she met Nu, she had been married and had a son.

“My husband decided to move to Saigon for work as our life in Can Tho was tough, but then he left us for another woman,” she recounted.

Diep became the family’s breadwinner and earned a living for two until the day she heard about the little girl abandoned in hospital.

That was when the family became three.

However, as if life had not been hard enough, a few months ago, Nu was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her brain.

Since then, Diep has brought the adopted daughter, who she loves like her own, to Ho Chi Minh City for surgery.

Nu is under the care of the Oncology Hospital, and though it is hard for the young woman, she always has her mother by her side.

 She never lets her daughter feel how hard she has to try.

Below are photos capturing Diep and her daughter taken by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's photographer Ngoc Duong:

Diep takes Nu for a walk around the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, where she stands by her daughter’s side during her battle with cancer.

After chemotherapy, Nu has to rely on her mother for daily activities.

Diep feeds her daughter at the hospital.

After bringing her daughter to the hospital, Diep gets back to work selling sticky rice.

Nu falls asleep in pain during a blood transfusion.

Diep helps her daughter to walk.

The love from her mother is the strength for Nu during her battle with cancer.

Diep helps Nu to study to ensure she does not forget her school lessons when she gets back to school.

Nu looks pale in their tiny room.

Diep bursts into tears talking about her daughter’s illness.