Sun-Mi Lee was born on October 28, 1983 in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Her parents could not take care of her and so she went to the orphanage. From there she was adopted by a Dutch family at the age of one and a half. On February 14 in 1985, Sun-Mi Lee came to the Netherlands and was given the name Sun-Mi Venema. She lived in Limburg for a few years and then moved to Zaanstad.
There Sun-Mi went to primary school and after a few years she moved to another village. Later she went to the MAVO (high school) and then had a side job in a children's play paradise Ballorig. She successfully completed the MAVO(high school).Then Sun-Mi went to secondary vocational education where she followed the Social Pedagogical Work course. She had to repeat a year, so she decided to work part-time and go to school part-time. She got a job in a daycare.
Sun-Mi's life was going well. She had a job, she got an education, often went out with her friends and she was asked to model.
Until her life changed drastically.
On October 25 in 2001, she became seriously ill. She developed the so-called Locked-in syndrome. She was completely paralyzed and unfortunately could no longer speak. She communicates with a speech computer. After years of intensive therapy, she has become what she is today. The left half of her body still functions reasonably well, but the right half of her body hardly functions. She has an electric wheelchair because she no longer has walking, standing and torso function.
She decided to focus more on writing.
In September 2010 she published her life story Gevangen in mijn binnenwereld. Read more about this on the page: book 1.
March 29, 2018 Sun-Mi published her second book Donkere wolken. Read more on the page: book 2. These books are only available in Dutch.
In September 2023, Sun-Mi published her third book Dark Couds. The English translation of her second book Donkere wolken from 2018.
She is engaged in giving lectures. She does this on a national and international level.
Read more about this on the page: lecture.
Until a miracle happened in Sun-Mi's life at the end of 2018. After more than 17 years, she has difficulty, but she is learning to speak again.