Jacek Gaworski has died. The decorated fencer lost his battle with illness.

• More information can be found in Przegląd Sportowy Onet

Gaworski died two days before his 58th birthday. For many years he had been battling devastating diseases: multiple sclerosis, spinal cord cancer and malignant melanoma of the mucous membranes in the metastatic phase.

He was a medical phenomenon, doctors said, who had never seen a patient with such a rare set of diseases. We covered his dramatic story in a major article published on April 14, 2024 .

Since 2004, when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his life has been a series of challenges. The disease has robbed him of mobility, sight and independence, and subsequent diagnoses – spinal cord cancer in 2012 and melanoma in 2022 – have only deepened his suffering. His wife compared the pain he endured every day to “breaking bones without anesthesia”. Despite this, Gaworski never lost his fighting spirit, and his greatest support was his family.

Sport was everything to him. As a fully able-bodied fencer, he won Polish championship titles, and when he had to sit in a wheelchair, he did not abandon his beloved sport. He practiced it in a new form for him. And in this field he achieved success. He became an eight-time individual Polish champion, vice-champion of Europe, bronze medalist of the world championships and silver medalist of the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Unfortunately, after ending his career he did not receive support from the sports community, which hurt him deeply. "Nobody said: thank you," recalled his wife Elżbieta.

The Gaworski family lived in constant fear for the future. Medical expenses, reaching PLN 10,000 per month, forced them to sell their property and get into debt. Jacek Gaworski was counting down the days to his 57th birthday, which was to fall on May 13. "This is my goal, I want to live to see it," he said. He succeeded. He passed away two days before the next one. "I will not die alone," he repeated, surrounded by his loved ones.