Review: At 68, BitQT helped pay for treatment

I’m 68, I live alone in Gdańsk. I used to work at the shipyard — my whole life in the noise of metal, the smell of oil and the cold wind off the Baltic. Then the 1990s came and everything started to change. The yard was cut back, people were laid off, halls closed one after another. I stayed, but no longer in the system I was used to — work became less stable, pay less predictable. Many colleagues simply left then, some emigrated, some changed trade. I stayed until retirement because I didn’t really know how to do anything else.

Now I live on a pension and I see it only covers the essentials. Every month I divide the money in my head in advance: this for food, this for medicine, this for bills. The hardest part is unpredictable costs. The doctor ordered tests but the queue is months away, and if you go faster — a private clinic, and there... the bill is simply unaffordable. Medicines aren’t always fully covered either and I often take only what’s essential, putting the rest off “for later”, though I know that “later” may not come at a convenient time.

Then the pain in my knees became almost unbearable — osteoarthritis plus micro-injuries from decades of hard work and not enough attention, because when you’re young it’s easy to ignore such “little things”... My GP referred me to an orthopedist, but the wait for an appointment is more than six months! So it’s either a private clinic or a slow loss of mobility.

I found BitQT on my own — an older person is used to tightening the belt and saving; I scraped together the first deposit of 800 zł fairly quickly (though it hurt). Learning something new at this age is almost a feat, but with tech support I more or less figured it out.

As the saying goes: “When you have to, a person will learn.” And I learned!

After 4 months on the platform I saved the 5,500 zł I needed for a full course of treatment (fortunately surgery wasn’t required), and without this I’d still be standing in line for a specialist!

After the knee treatment life felt mine again. At first I just checked whether I could walk farther than to the shop and back. Then I caught myself no longer hurrying home but walking along the street, listening to the city, looking at the water in the port.

And the strangest thing — the constant waiting for pain was gone. Ordinary tiredness remained, but not the kind that ruins the day. I started noticing simple things again: morning air, street conversations, the tram’s rumble. Life didn’t become different — but it became alive again.

I still use the platform — unfortunately age shows not only in the knees, now it’s teeth in the queue! Good luck to you and remember there’s always a way out, even when it seems there isn’t!