True Gold
- Polish Olympian Maria Andrejczyk, 28, is an inspirational athlete who developed a deeper empathy for others after going through bone cancer – and from her dedication to the sport of javelin itself.
- The 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2018, has helped young children going through similar challenges ever since her own life-changing journey and resilience to overcome.
- Sarcomas are cancers that arise from the cells that hold the body together. They can occur in muscles, nerves, bones, fat, tendons, cartilage or other forms of connective tissues.
- Going through a major life change like cancer, it often inspires people to take on a greater calling, as people fighting the disease will typically tap into every human emotion that is possible to experience. Finding ways to give back can be an important part of your own healing journey.
“I think my health problems made me want to help others because I understand what it’s like and how hard – what I knew was that I wanted to help a tiny person who was in pain,” Maria has said.
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And she strives to share that feeling with others.
When Maria won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo olympics, she said it brought her such immense happiness and she wanted to “pass that happiness” on to young children, so she auctioned it off to help the family of an 8-month-year old baby boy with a heart defect pay for his medical surgery.
“The true value of a medal always remains in the heart,” she told Eurosport Polska, a Polish sports show.
“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,” she continued. “That is why I decided to auction it to help sick children.”
The convenience store chain Zabka wound up winning the bid for the silver medal, but inspired by Maria’s heart of gold, gave it back to the Olympian.
“We decided that [medal] from Tokyo will stay with Maria! We admire [Maria] and we are glad that we were able to contribute,” Zabka tweeted at the time.
Using Your Passion to Help Others
Going through a major life change like cancer, it often inspires people to take on a greater calling, as people fighting the disease will typically tap into every human emotion that is possible to experience. Finding ways to give back can be an important part of your own healing.
Just one year after Maria placed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, fellow bone cancer survivor Simone Smith, the wife of rapper LL Cool J, started creating jewelry to sell for cancer research. In 2004, Smith was diagnosed with a rare stage 3 bone cancer called chondrosarcoma.
Once she beat cancer, Simone, like Maria, said she felt lucky from the tremendous love and support from her family and she wanted to support less fortunate people who were fighting the disease.
RELATED: LL Cool J’s Wife, Simone Smith, Beat Bone Cancer & Shows Us How Giving Back Can Help You Move On
“‘Boss is battling cancer by finding your inner strength,” Simone said in a video for the American Cancer Society. “Cancer left its mark, but it couldn’t beat the boss within.” Smith leveled-up like a boss following the bone cancer diagnosis and devoted her platform to help others fight it, too.
To this day, Simone continues to shine a light on the importance of funding cancer research.
“I passionately love God. I’m passionately in love with my husband. I love and mother my children and grandson with a passion. Designing jewelry, that brings style and beauty to all the Queens that wear it, is my PASSION.”
“What’s your PASSION?”
Building Resilience
Resilience is an important trait, but not the easiest to build.
The ultimate goal is not to avoid tough times, but to be able to bounce back from them. And yet, when they are faced with an overwhelming, life-changing situation, how do people shift their view? How do they learn to see the problem as temporary, rather than permanent, and figure out a solution?
SurvivorNetTV Presents: Resilient — Learning to Overcome
It’s complicated, because building resilience is more about your mental and emotional fortitude than anything else. According to the American Psychological Association, “the resources and skills associated with more positive adaptation (i.e., greater resilience) can be cultivated and practiced.”
In other words, resilience is not something you’re born with, which should be encouraging. Instead, after every challenge in your life, you build more and more resilience to those hard times.
What Kind of Cancer is Sarcoma?
Sarcomas are cancers that arise from the cells that hold the body together. They can occur in muscles, nerves, bones, fat, tendons, cartilage or other forms of connective tissues.
“There are hundreds of different kinds of sarcomas, which come from different kinds of cells,” Dr. George Demetri, director of the Sarcoma and Bone Oncology Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, previously told SurvivorNet.
The word sarcoma refers to a large array of bone and soft tissue cancers. Those are then further broken down into more specific forms of the disease, including:
- Ewing’s sarcoma Cancer that typically occurs in and around the bones, often in the arms or legs, or the bones of the pelvis. It most commonly occurs in children and young adults.
- Kaposi sarcoma Rare type of cancer that causes lesions on the skin, in lymph nodes, organs and the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and throat. It typically affects people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV.
- Epithelioid sarcoma Soft tissue cancer that grows slowly. It’s likely to begin under the skin of areas like the finger, hand, forearm, lower part of the leg or foot.
- Synovial sarcoma Known also as a malignant synovioma, this is a cancer that can form soft tissues such as muscle or ligaments, commonly close to joints or in areas like the arm, leg or foot.
- Osteogenic sarcoma Known also as osteosarcoma, this cancer forms in the bone and is most common in young children.
Spindle cell sarcoma Rare form of the disease that accounts for less than 2% of all primary bone cancer cases. It’s most common in adults over age 40 and often forms in the bones of the arms, legs and pelvis. - Angiosarcoma This cancer appears in the lining of the blood vessels.
- Liposarcoma This cancer develops from fat cells and often occurs in the torso, limbs or deep within the abdominal lining.
- Chondrosarcoma This cancer occurs in the cells of the cartilage, mostly in adults over the age of 40.
“Unfortunately, most sarcomas don’t cause many of the symptoms that may be associated with other cancers,” Dr. Dale Shepard, director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Phase I and Sarcoma Programs, told SurvivorNet in a prior interview. Shepard also explained that this often leads to large tumors at the time of diagnosis.
“Soft tissue sarcomas are typically painless,” he added. “Bone sarcomas may be mistaken for orthopedic injuries. A mass the size of a golf ball or larger and growing should be evaluated as a potential sarcoma. It’s important that patients who do have symptoms are not dismissive of them.”
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