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Thousands of Chinese fans mourn 17-year-old boy who dies of cancer

Xinhua, May 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 17-year-old Sun Haoran had his dying wish realized when thousands of Beijing Guo'an fans held his pictures to watch the team's Chinese Super League game.

Sun, a loyal Guo'an supporter, had hoped to watch the team's home game one last time but died of bone cancer Wednesday.

"I am not afraid of cancer. As long as I can stand in the stadium, I will certainly be a good flag bearer," the Beijing boy once said, who even designed a flag of a wolf which originally comes from a Chinese animation and is known for its resilience.

Sun could not make it to Friday's home match and his fellow fans decided to realize his dream in another way.

"Let Haoran hear us. He is always one of us," thousands of Guo'an fans chanted together and mourned for the boy for three minutes before the match in which Guo'an beat Shijiazhuang 3-1.

"Thank everyone who did this for Haoran. I believe he can see this in heaven," said Haoran's tearful father.

Sun was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2014 and forced to have his right arm amputated and received chemotherapy.

While he was under treatment, Sun kept following his beloved team, even watching an away game in southern city Guangzhou.

However, the cancer came back in March and became so severe that Sun could hardly walk by himself in just one month.

To encourage him to keep fighting, Guo'an club filmed a video with Sun's favorite players sending best wishes. But Sun did not wait to watch the video himself. Endi