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This is one silver medal that turned out to be arguably more valuable than all the gold medals combined at the recent Tokyo Olympics.
Maria Andrejczyk, an athlete from Poland, decided to auction off the silver medal she won in the javelin in Tokyo.
But instead of doing it for selfish profit, she did it for a good cause.
Andrejczyk announced she was auctioning off the medal to raise 140,000 euros ($163,960.30 in U.S. dollars) for Miloszek Malysa, an 8-month-old boy who is in need of heart surgery at Stanford University in California.
The total cost of the surgery is 280,000 euros, so Andrejczyk hoped the auction would at least provide half of that, according to Sky Sports.
The boy has a donation page that’s been created in Polish.
The auction ended up being won by Zabka, a Polish convenience store, and further donations helped Andrejczyk surpass the 140,000 euros she hoped to raise.
Even better, Zabka ended up giving the silver medal back to Andrejczyk.
As of earlier this week, close to 90% of the overall funds needed for the boy’s surgery had been raised.
Andrejczyk is a cancer survivor herself, having overcome a 2018 bone cancer diagnosis.
“The true value of a medal always remains in the heart,” she told Polish television, according to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail. “A medal is only an object, but it can be of great value to others. This silver can save lives, instead of collecting dust in a closet.”
Andrejczyk may have won a silver medal in Tokyo, but no doubt, her heart is made of pure gold.