Allegations have been made on social media that Lee Peng has been neglected by the government. A former seven-time gold medal winner, she now sells tissues and tissue pouches on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Ismail said he did not want any irresponsible parties to try and take advantage of Lee Peng, adding that the allegations could tarnish the good name of the youth and sports ministry and the foundation (Yakeb).

“Sometimes there are parties trying to manipulate former athletes for their own benefit,” he said.

“I have told the minister (Ahmad Faizal Azumu) and Yakeb chairman (Noorul Ariffin Abdul Majeed) to look into the issue of the former paralympic athlete being forced to sell tissues by the roadside.

“Yakeb has tried to help as much as possible with business offers, but they were rejected (by Lee Peng),” he said while at Yakeb’s annual general meeting.

Yesterday, National Sports Council director-general Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said Lee Peng had rejected efforts to help her and preferred to be self-reliant.

He said the council had previously made an offer to enter her in an entrepreneurial programme specially for former athletes, but Lee Peng did not want to budge from her stand of being self-reliant and using her wheelchair to get around.