Nurse holding up hands of 'untouchables' for decades

The first time Xing Shaoyun reached for a leprosy patient's disfigured hand, the patient flinched. "Don't touch me," she whispered. "I don't want to make you sick."

That moment shattered Xing's last barrier of fear and redefined her life's mission.

Now 49, the head nurse of Hainan Fifth People's Hospital, also known as Hainan Skin Disease and Plastic Surgery Hospital, has spent three decades eradicating the stigma with radical compassion, earning her China's highest medical honor, the Norman Bethune Award, on March 31.