Lying on a spartan bed, feeding her tiny daughter from a bottle, teenager Wai Ling describes her heartbreaking dilemma.
Under China's strict birth-control laws, Wai Ling, 19, and her boyfriend, 21, are too young to get married - and without being married they can't register their daughter's birth.
They could bribe a state official to turn a blind eye, but that would cost far more than they could ever afford - half a year's salary of £1,300.
The alternative of a court appearance and swingeing fine for having an illegal child would be equally ruinous - so Wai Ling feels she has little choice but to sell her newborn baby to a child trafficker.
Even the thought of handing over her baby causes her unbearable pain. "Every mother assumes she will be with her child for ever," she cries plaintively. "But soon she will be growing up in another family. As a mother, I really want to watch her grow every day with me. But I know that's not possible."
Welcome to Competitive Eating UK - a new and exciting organisation formed to promote and celebrate the art of Competitive Eating.
CEUK has been created to take Competitive Eating in the UK to a new, exciting, exhilarating level - and this year 2008, has seen the inaugral CEUK events. Our aim is to take Competitive Eating to an Olympic standard - we plan to discover the very best Competitive Eaters in the UK - good enough to challenge for world championships.
***2009 is the year we are really going to hit the headlines!!! We have already organised two great events - more news will follow as soon as the venue is confirmed***
In the U.S.A. Competitive Eating has long been a massive success, with both entrants and spectators enjoying some phenomenal performances - now is the time the U.K. witnessed such athletic prowess.
This website will be updated on a regular basis - with all the very latest news regarding our first championships.
And don't miss the CEUK Blog - simply click on the link to read the latest news from CEUK HQ - and there's an opportunity for you to voice your views on Competitive Eating.
For more information please contact : simonred@msn.com
Stay Hungry!
Ray Bloom, Founder of CEUK.
From the BBC:The scroll on which Jack Kerouac wrote his seminal Beat novel On the Road has been auctioned for a record $2.43m (£1.7m), nearly $1m more than the expected price.The 36m (120-foot) scroll was bought by James Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team.
The final price - $2.2m (£1.5m) plus a buyer's premium of $226,000 (£158,666) - breaks the previous record paid for a literary work, $1.98m (£1.4m) for a 1920 copy of Franz Kafka's The Trial.
The manuscript of the cult classic was being sold at Christie's by the brother of Kerouac's third wife to pay inheritance taxes.
Mr Irsay is considering taking the manuscript on a road trip mirroring the one described in the novel.
"I look on it as a stewardship. I don't believe you own anything. In this world, it's dust to dust," he said.
The manuscript is pasted together in sections with the seams later reinforced with tape.
Road trip
In the run up to the auction, the manuscript had been on show at cities across the US, including San Francisco, considered to be the spiritual home of Mr Kerouac and the beat poets.
Mr Kerouac himself told Allen Ginsberg that the unravelled manuscript "looks like a road".
The sale comes 50 years after the book was completed, on 22 April 1951.
