Polish Olympian Maria Andrejczyk Auctions Silver Medal to Pay For Young Boy's Life-Saving Surgery

Maria Andrejczyk, an Olympic javelin thrower who won silver at the recent Tokyo games, has auctioned off her medal to help save a young baby's life.

The Polish athlete who is a bone cancer survivor herself, announced on Facebook earlier this week that she would be supporting a fundraiser for 8-month-old Miloszek Malysa who's been living with a serious heart defect and requires surgery in the United States.

"He already has a head start from Kubus a boy who didn't make it in time but whose amazing parents decided to pass on the funds they collected," Maria explains.

"And in this way, I also want to help. It's for him that I am auctioning my Olympic silver medal."

After making her own donation, Maria wanted to raise the remainder of the funds - and she did!

In a post on Instagram, she confirmed that Polish supermarket chain, Zabka, made a bid of $US125,000.

"We have the winner of the auction!" she posted, explaining that she ended the auction early so that Miloszek could fly to the US as soon as possible to have his operation.

And the story gets better.

Zabka ( aka the supermarket chain who made the winning bid) shared on Twitter that they wanted her to keep the medal!

"We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian, so we decided to support the fundraiser for Miloszek. We decided that from Tokyo will stay with Maria. We admire [her] and we are glad that we were able to contribute."