She died exactly 6 years before i was born, as she died on my b-day i know the story of Aya Kito will remain in my heart forever.
wewe may not know who this girl is.
too me she is the most inspiring person i have read about, to me her diary is up there with Anne Franks. i'm going to type up her diary in english soon too.
BTW BEFORE wewe READ... my spelling is not too good and somtimes i miss words/letters kwa mistake, my appologoes in adavance!
Aya was a very bright, hardworking student, throughout her disease her doctor yamamoto, reported her as a very positive willing patient, even though her death was inevenetble.
she was an ordinary happy school girl, when she was 14 she studied hard too go to a private school. just before going herself and her mum noticed a few strange things...
1 aya had fallen over and not used her hands to catch herself (which everyone does atomaticaly when they fall)
2 aya swayed when she walked
3 aya had Lost wieght
4 she was quite clumsy
aya had many tests done including a cat scan. she was aliyopewa medicine and returned home. what she didnt relize was that she had spinecerebellar ataxia, and that her life would be changed forever. during the disease she had to motivate herself and cope with way the cruel world treated handicaps, she never quite accepted the fact she was disabled and fought till death. she always beleived there would be a cure.
She waas never greedy au wantfull, and yet she was treated harshly, even kwa 1 of her caregivers (who help look after her at the hospital)
this disease is a progressive disease, which means it gets worse over time. our brain are made of millions of nerve cells, and ten times that amount of normal cells. In our brain their is a part called the 'cerebellum' this part controls our control. it's the bit we use to songesha our arms, legs, mouth ect it's also conected to our spinal cord, our spinal cord make us songesha automatical when our body is danger, eg wewe touch somthing to hot wewe songesha your hand away without thinking about it.
this picture shows the cerebellum (inside red circle) in two different people, the one on the right is a healthy one, this stays like this for all our lives, the one on the left is rapidly ''shrinking'' and there are clearly less neurons.
when people have SCA (spino...) the nerve cells in the cerebellum are destroyed, no one knows why the cells do this, but without them wewe can't control the body. as they are Lost a bit at a time the victim slowly looses the ability to use their bodies a bit at a time.
... and the nerves in the spine help with reflex actions.
once aya was in the hospital toilets a women took in her little boy who was being naughty, the women pionted at aya and alisema '' if wewe don't behave wewe will become like her'' not to mention she couldnt go outside her nyumbani au hospital without being stared at.
aya went from difficultied in walking, to having to use a wheelchair, loosing her speech, the loosing her ability to stand, the last thing she could do was wirte after she could no longer hold a pen she was bedridden (she could only lay and barley move). she fell into a coma and died aat 25 yers 10 months old.
she died in the early 80s there was no cure. in 2007, very very recently, a chuo kikuu, chuo kikuu cha hospital in china discovered the use of stem cells as treatment, it is not clear yet wether it can completely cure the disease but it does make an icredable difference. one man could hardly walk, she struggled even with support, but after stem cell treatment he could walk fairly steadily all on his own.
aya and mum, near the end she could barley move, here is a bored with the alphabet she used to communicate, it was very slow and exaughsting, despite being bedridden her mind was perfectly clear and she had no ways of exspressing her deepest emotions
media
This is a cover for Aya's diary, it was released when she was 23 and gave hope to thousands of handicaps, and many other people like me!
she always had a diary but her doctor required her to keep one and record any syptoms. as she slowly Lost control of her body her hand writting got messy. kwa the time she was 19 she continued to write but it was not possible to read. her mum finished her diary and got the doctor to write a chpater. the book was released when aya was 23, it made it into national news and aya finally completed her lifes wish... to help people somthing beleived in the end she would never have the ability to do. sje often wrote ' i want to help in somekind of way, i just think of one i have the ability to do' she never relized she was uandishi one of the most inspiring vitabu of all time. sadly she died two years later and the book was rereleased with one zaidi chapter kwa her mum and the publisher of the book. the book is inspriing, especially for me a person with a very dull and hazey look on life aya has made me relize how i should gratefull have the ability to use my hands.
Cover for the boxset of the 11 episode drama. i found it on Youtube with the english subtitles...
i watched all 11 episodes wich can be found on Youtube with english subtitles. its based on her diary but isn't that accurate, characters and events had been changed and they made up a character callled asou who fell in upendo with aya.
the piont in asou was that because they couldnt just film somone writting in a book they used him for aya to exspress her true feelings (she only did this in her diary so asou kind of replaces that) also the upendo story gives some hope.
also one of her brothers is missing...
when watching the series i kept thinking she was goin to be cured, it pulls wewe in with thier hope for aya, it wasnt till the tenth episode i knew that she was just going to die.
The cover for the film 'A litre of tears' i also watched this online on a movie streaming site.
the film is great it is much zaidi accurate than the drama series and made me cry zaidi than the drama stories, its about an saa au two i cant renmber that i watched online too. it sticks to the pionts in the diary and doesnt have all the in depth extra storie like the drama series.
over all...
i like both the drama and the film both made me cry, both were intresting. wich one wewe watch i guess depends on how much time wewe have. the book is also great i have a copy in english which ill type up on here chapter ny chpater starting with the very last entry then starting from beggining.
summary
aya was an amazing girl, her book 1 litre of tears gave hope to many others, while the drama, 1 litre of tears and the film a litre of tears made the disease well known and raised money for her family and for charity. she beleived she would survive and deeply loved her mum. she was often sad but took pleasure in such simply things like, makeovers, being able to read books, taking baths and other trivial things. if she were diagnosed today she would probabley survive, then it was her effort over two decades zamani that brought her diease too light.
You can see the sweetness and intelegence, she was tenderhearted and never demanding although she deeply wished that she did not have to die, in her diary she once alisema ''i want to build i time machien and go back in time''
this is my favourite part from her diary;
“It’s ok if wewe fall,
wewe can just get up again,
While your down why not look up at the sky?
The blue sky spreads across above you,
Can wewe see it smiling at you?
Your alive.”
i wish i could thank her for how she had changed my life and one siku in the far furture i know i will.
rest in peace aya-chan!
