Polish nine-day charity stream breaks records to support kids with cancer

A nine-day, non-stop live stream in Poland raised a record-breaking sum for charity, local media said on Monday, after donations totalling over 250 million zlotys ($69 million) flooded in for children with cancer.

Broadcast from a small flat in Warsaw, the stream was organised by influencer Piotr Hancke, better known as Latwogang, and was supported by musicians, celebrities and sports stars including six-times Grand Slam champion tennis player Iga Swiatek and Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.

The money raised, which was more than three times the previous record for a livestream fundraiser, went to the Cancer Fighters Foundation. A previous best recorded by Guinness World Records was $19.5 million for an event in France last year.

"We're reaching for the stars, reaching for space, to help those who need it most, the innocent children who fight the hardest battles every day," the foundation's president Marek Kopysc told private broadcaster RMF FM.

In one segment several celebrities shaved their heads in support of cancer patients.

It began on April 17 on YouTube and finished at 9:37 p.m. (1937 GMT) local time on Sunday. At one point the stream was viewed by 1.4 million people simultaneously, state news agency PAP reported, meaning it also broke records for viewer numbers.

The stream followed a song recorded by rapper Bedoes with a young cancer patient. Latwogang told his followers that he would launch a non-stop charity stream with one second for every 'like' on TikTok for the idea, Poland's PAP news agency reported.

($1 = 3.6116 zlotys)

-Reporting by Malgorzata Wojtunik and Pawel Florkiewicz, Writing by Alan CharlishEditing by Keith Weir/Reuters