There are few moments in a sportsperson’s life that are more heartbreaking than when they have to part with their hard-earned medals. Powe-rlifter Indira Gaikwad however, did not have much of a choice, as she had no other means to buy medicines for her mother.

Indira Gaikwad (43) and her mother live in a tiny 10 foot by 15 foot room. She is fast approaching 45, the limit for differently-abled sportspeople aspiring to a government job. Pics/ Dattatraya Adhalge

Gaikwad, a disabled champion, has won 35 gold medals at various international and domestic events, some of which she sold as scrap recently, to collect Rs 500 for the medicines. She had received the Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1997, the state’s highest honour for sportspersons, but despite that, she has spent 17 years struggling to make ends meet, searching for a government job in the meanwhile.