Healthcare volunteers of China Cancer Foundation send flowers and greeting cards to a patient on New Year's Day in Beijing (COURTESY OF CANCER INSTITUTE AND HOSPITAL)

At 8 a.m. on the first day of 2010, nursing student Su Ping, together with 14 classmates, left for Tiantan Hospital in downtown Beijing for a volunteer campaign organized by the China Cancer Foundation (CCF).

Born in 1990 in suburban Beijing, Su has joined various volunteer programs since middle school. In September 2009 she enrolled at the Capital Railway Health School, and in October she participated in the 11th Beijing Hope Run, a fundraising event for cancer research in China that is modeled on Canada's Terry Fox Run.

"This is the first time I have visited patients as a nursing student," Su told Beijing Review. "We had a training course before coming here. To be honest, I feel excited and also a bit nervous."

In the inpatient neurosurgery ward, Su and her peers, all in orange uniforms and caps, extended their sincere New Year's greetings to patients and their families by handing out flowers and greeting cards as well as healthcare newspapers and magazines.

"I come from the countryside and have no idea what they've written on the greeting cards, but I do feel warm and happy, as they visit us on New Year's Day," said patient Cai Qiaojun, 61. "I hope I can recover and go home soon, as the volunteers said."

According to CCF Secretary General Zhao Ping, more than 100 volunteers including university students, former cancer patients and taxi drivers joined the campaign on New Year's Day, sending their best wishes to patients at 11 hospitals in Beijing.

Zhao said the CCF launched a pilot healthcare volunteer program at the Beijing-based Cancer Institute and Hospital (CIH) under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in August 2008, in parallel with the Beijing Olympic Games. Volunteers provide information and consultations on checkup locations, treatment procedures and notices.

"It has worked well and proved to be effective, as it helps save patients time and improve working efficiency at outpatient centers," said Zhao, who is also the president of CIH.

"Healthcare volunteers have played an important role in medical services in foreign countries, but are still new in China," Zhao said. "It is a promising campaign and we are confident that more people will join in to contribute."

"I'm more than happy to see patients' smiling faces," Su said with a big smile. "There's nothing more special and meaningful than spending the first day of the New Year as a volunteer, is there?"