Ms. Ma Sufang was a 72-year-old practitioner who started her cultivation in the spring of 1997, after which she recovered from the diabetes that she had suffered from for twenty years. After the persecution started on July 1999, Ms. Ma went twice to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. In both cases, the persecutors illegally detained her and withheld one year of her pension. The local 610 Office staff and the people in charge of her work unit went to her home many times to harass her. Ms. Ma died in August 2004.