A cargo ship carrying more than 70,000 masks, collected and donated by boxing star Goran Martinovic in Suzhou City, left Yangshan Port in Shanghai for the Port of Rijeka in Rijeka, Croatia, on the evening of May 25.

The former Croatian boxing champion, who has lived in Suzhou for about six years, boxed on the national boxing team in Croatia and won multiple champions in Europe. In 2015, he came to Suzhou to help his brother set up Suzhou Showdown white-collar boxing events.

When the coronavirus outbreak hit China, Martinovic asked his relatives and friends in Croatia to purchase 20,000 masks and then delivered them to Suzhou. He also took interviews with European media to introduce China’s great efforts to combat the pandemic and dismissed some fake reports.

As the coronavirus spreads in the world, Croatia had reported accumulatively 2,244 confirmed cases by May 25 and also faced a shortage of medical supplies. Then Martinovic started a new campaign to collect and donate anti-pandemic materials to his home country. Within just a couple of weeks, he collected 67,000 medical masks, 3,500 N95 masks, and a donation of 30,000 yuan, and more supplies are piling up.

With the support of Suzhou authorities and logistics company AMASS in Shanghai, the supplies were able to kick off shipping as soon as possible. Upon arrival, the supplies will be distributed by the government to hospitals.

"Many thanks to my generous (boxing club) members and those who have never met me. The people of Suzhou have given so much back to me," said Martinovic.

Contact us at english@jschina.com.cn