Polish athlete auctions off his silver Rio 2016 medal to help boy with cancer
Polish discus thrower Piotr Malachowski has put up for sale the silver medal he won at the Rio Olympics to help raise funds for a boy with a rare cancer, the athlete said on Friday.
“In Rio I fought for gold,” Malachowski said on his Facebook profile. “Today I call on all people – let us fight together for something that is even more valuable. For the health of this fantastic boy.”
For the past two years, three-year-old Olek Szymansk has been battling retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer that only affects children under the age of five.
Malachowski said he is hoping that the valuable silverware will raise enough money to send Olek to New York for vital treatment.
“There is no chance of saving Olek’s eyes in Poland. The only chance is therapy in New York,” Malachowski said.
A Polish foundation called Siepomaga has already gathered about a third of the roughly 480,000 zlotys ($126,000) it said was needed to finance the boy’s treatment at ophthalmic oncologist David Abramson’s clinic in New York.
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