Judy Murray in awe of Olympics ace who sold medal to help fund boy’s life-saving surgery

Judy Murray has paid tribute to Polish Olympian Maria Andrejczyk after the javelin star sold her medal to fund crucial surgery for a sick child. Andrejczyk captured the hearts of sports fans everywhere in 2021 when she auctioned off the silver medal she won at Tokyo 2020 in a bid to help finance heart surgery for Miloszek Malysa.

The Olympic star saw a plea from the eight-month old’s parents who revealed that Miłoszek had to make the journey from his native Poland to Stanford University in California in order to undergo the operation. Despite the best efforts of various fundraisers, including the money generated from the Andrejczyk’s medal, Miloszek, who was born with a serious heart defect, passed away in March 2022 aged just three-years-old.

Andrejczyk’s kind gesture was brought to the attention of tennis coach Murray this week on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the 64-year-old writing: “How good is this?” followed by a heart emoji.

Andrejczyk claimed she wanted to help a stranger following her success in Japan and said she saw Miloszek’s appeal on Facebook. The athlete later confirmed that Polish convenience store chain, Zabka, won the auction for the medal. However, instead of keeping the medal, Zabka returned it to Andrejczyk, praising her “beautiful and extremely noble gesture”.

Andrejczyk was perhaps inspired to try and help Miloszek and his parents after she herself recovered from bone cancer following a diagnosis in 2018. The 28-year-old received the devastating news after a sinus X-Ray revealed that she suffered from osteosarcoma, a type of cancer that forms in the cells that form bones.

The javelin star required surgery, however not chemotherapy, and was able to restart training for the Tokyo Games in 2019 where she valiantly went on to claim the silver medal she then auctioned.