Following his gold medal win at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, para-shuttler Cheah Liek Hou was lavished with an extremely generous financial incentive for his achievement.
Under the National Sports Incentive Scheme (Shakam), he was given a whopping RM1 million for bringing home Malaysia’s first Paralympics gold after he defeated Indonesia’s Surya Nugroho in the finals on Monday.
Cheah Liek Hou says he will donate part of RM1mil reward
However, instead of keeping the reward money all for himself, Cheah revealed that he plans to give a part of it away to charity, reported NST.
“The first thing I would like to do is to donate it. I want to give back to society. Although I’ve yet to decide which charities to give it to, I have a desire to support disabled people, old folks homes and orphanages,” he said.
According to the English daily, this isn’t the first time Cheah has decided to donate part of his winnings to charity.
Back in 2020, he donated a part of his RM1 million reward, and an additional RM100,000 he received from FWD Takaful, to charity when he became champion at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Cheah’s journey to his second Paralympic gold hasn’t been an easy one, where he had to deal with his longtime coach’s departure in 2022 and found himself working with Indonesian Nova Armada.
With another gold medal added to his belt, however, the 36-year-old said he has proven the doubters wrong regarding his ability to bounce back.
“Some people doubted if I could defend my Paralympic gold. Now that I’ve won, I’ve proven them wrong, and it’s incredibly satisfying,” he quipped.
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