Zheng Cao, who beat the odds and cheated death, is the Mezzo-Soprano from China

She describes herself as a girl from China who came to America with $45 and knowing two words of English, “Merry Christmas.”  Source: SFGate

When Zheng Cao burst onto the San Francisco Opera scene in 1995, she played Siebel in “Faust.” Since then, she’s performed in opera houses throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Today, an inspiration, the Shanghai-born Mezzo-soprano has defied the odds of surviving stage four lung cancer and a diagnoses that said she had six months to live.

When diagnosed, she received a death sentence. Months later, she would learn that the rigorous treatment plan had dramatically reduced the cancer threat.

“This is the most impressive response I’ve seen in my life,” Dr. Rosenbaum said.

Zheng Cao’s tumors either had decreased in size, were no longer visible or no longer considered active.

To learn more about Zhen Cao’s journey, visit her Blog at Caring Bridge.org.

Zheng Cao holds degrees from the Shanghai Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music.

While studying, she worked as a singer on the Holland American cruise line where she met Troy Donahue in 1991.

Donahue said, “We were very serious, very committed to each other. It’s the greatest relationship I’ve ever had in my life.” Source: Troy Donahue at encore4.net

Zheng Cao and Troy Donahue were engaged until his death in 2001. She turned 44 on June 9, 2010.

See China’s Got Talent Too

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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2 Responses to Zheng Cao, who beat the odds and cheated death, is the Mezzo-Soprano from China

  1. Ev "merlin" says:

    What they dont mention is you go in feeling quite good, but next morning you wake up feeling like you just entered a nightmarish hell with machines everywhere connected to tubes, and one hell of a hangover. Let me rephrase that, it feels as if your stomach has turned against you and you refuse to send ANYTHING down the hatch because that would be supporting a known terrorist.

    Also, it must’ve been harder for her as she’s chinese. Try walking into a hospital at a ripe old age and having your doctor tell you EVERYTHING you know and believe about tea and herbal medicine is false. That’s like flushing your own faith down the toilet and having nothing left to believe in. Oh, but believe in our modern western medicine. It does what it was designed to do, but we haven’t worked out all the kinks yet in the process so you may have some adverse reactions ranging anywhere from mild to extreme, and everything from temporary to permanent (staring at my left foot). Not to mention, when you use western medicine you become a statistic in the bigger game of research whether a person lives or dies on western medicine. Oh yea, they get new research all the time in the biology labs, but you common folk will never be able to have it for at least another 10 years, and when you do get it we will drain your bank. Oh, and this is going on the record for future health insurance companies to look at. If you’re over 40, here’s paper and a pen start filing your Will with a lawyer. If you’re under 35, well take the paper and pen anyway as we highly recommend you write a Will because once you’re out of here you’ll have to hunt for jobs that provide health insurance as private companies will more than likely refuse you.

    Keep thinking there’s more I want to add, but the train of thought left the station without me.

    • Yea, all one needs do is read all the warnings on most if not all Western meds and it sounds worse than what you got. A couple of times I’ve had to sign papers for procedures that said there was a risk I might die just from drinking some liquid that had to be taken before a scan of some kind.

      Eastern herbal medicine worked for my wife once when Western meds failed her and she was told she was going to die. That’s went she went to see a well known and respected Chinese herbalist. Herbal medicine was where it all started and then the West took it a step further …

      The next step in modern Western medicine looks as if it will focus on each person’s individual and unique DNA. Individualized medicine that won’t work on anyone else. Can’t even imagine how much that will cost.

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