A university student in Hangzhou, Eastern China's Zhejiang Province, has been given an award for donating blood to a pregnant woman who was close to death.

Mao Chenbing, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, has the rare AB-blood type, which just one in 10,000 Chinese people have.

Last month, on a Saturday morning, Mao was chatting with friends online when she got an on-screen message. It said that a Dong minority woman in Guizhou Province was in desperate need of an AB-blood transfusion.

The 29-year-old woman would die if she did not receive a blood transfusion, the message said.

Mao comes from a small town in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. She has only paid half her tuition fees this semester because of a lack of funds. Even so she borrowed money from her classmates for the journey.

She took a train to Shanghai and a flight to Guiyang, capital city of Southwest China's Guizhou Province. Employees at Hongqiao Airport heard of her story and rushed her through the airport.

She arrived in Guiyang Airport at 9:30 pm and met worried family members of the pregnant woman in distress, Yang Changhua.

They arrived at the hospital in Liping County late at night the following day after taking a 10-hour journey on bumpy roads.

Mao fainted after she gave 240 ml blood, as she was so exhausted after two days' traveling.

On regaining consciousness she insisted on giving more blood, but concerned doctors refused her offer.

"I felt ashamed when I saw Yang lying on her bed unconscious as I could not help her more," Mao said in an interview with the Oriental Morning Post.

Soon after Mao returned to school, without telling anyone of her heroic deeds.

It wasn't until last Wednesday, when a deputy governor of Liping County visited Mao's university that her sacrifices were revealed. On the same day the university granted Mao an award for her bravery.

Yang has fully recovered, but regrettably she had a miscarriage.

(China Daily October 18, 2007)