Olympic athlete Maria Andrejczyk is auctioning off her silver medal to help pay for her baby's heart surgery.

According to Nine News, the javelin thrower's baby son Miloszek suffers from Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection.

Andrejczyk was hoping to raise the cash by selling her silver medal so that her eight-month-old boy could go through a critical surgery in the United States.

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Andrejczyk announced the fundraising auction in a post made on Facebook, writing:

"Miloszek has a serious heart defect. He needs an operation.

"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.

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

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Nine News reports that the winning bid for her gold medal was made by the Polish convenience store Zabka, who insisted that she keep it. Their generous bid totaled about $260,000 - covering approximately half of the cost of the procedure.

Thankfully the rest of the sum has now almost been met, thanks to other donations made by her concerned fans.

Andrejczyk announced the good news in a post shared with her 114,000 followers on Instagram, writing: "On Friday I received this wonderful information."

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She continued: "Due to the fact that you dears have already done wonders and joint forces have paid more than the equivalent of the initial medal to the Miloszek account - I decided to end the auction so that [my son] will receive the whole amount as soon as possible and can fly to the USA."

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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the supermarket chain stated that the brand was touched by the athlete's heartwarming gesture of love towards her child.

The spokesperson wrote: "We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian, so we decided to support the fundraiser for Miłoszek.

"We decided that from Tokyo will stay with Maria! We admire [Andrejczyk] and we are glad that we were able to contribute."

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/dpa picture alliance

Olympian auctions off her silver medal to help pay for baby's heart surgery