Aid Lauren and Tux in Their Time of Need

I'm starting this GoFundMe campaign to help a friend and her dog who got away yesterday and was struck by a car. Tux is a very sweet little (medium-sized mixed-breed) dog, who is about 1 year old, and who was dropped off at their horse farm a few weeks ago. My friend, Lauren, and her mom are huge animal-loving people, so they quickly fell in love with little Tux and they could not give him up to another home. Lauren herself is a young adult who is a vet tech student but has her own medical challenges. Lauren is extremely hard-working and helps her mom take care of her horses (several of which are rescues) while in school to become a vet tech.

In the past 9 months, however, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, had brain surgery to remove about 80% of the astrocytoma, and began medical treatment for the remaining tumor. To complicate things, she already had long-term effects of Lyme disease. In spite of all that, she works with her mom on the farm long hours. Lauren's cancer diagnosis came after she had a seizure one day. Because of the seizures from the tumor, she can't drive. She was briefly allowed to drive 6 months after her surgery but within a month found out she was having smaller seizures (without realizing it) when she had a seizure while driving. Luckily, it was a single-vehicle accident and she was not harmed, but her pickup truck was totaled. Now her family has no truck to pull their horse trailer.

Lauren's father also recently lost his government job due to budget cuts.

This family has clearly been through a lot in the past 9 months. Lauren’s medications are $40,000 a month, before insurance. I want to try and help them with their mounting expenses.

Tux was struck by a car yesterday during my kid's horse riding lesson and they rushed him to the vet. He was bleeding profusely from his legs. His right hip was dislocated and part of the socket fractured, plus he has several lacerations that were sutured. His vet bill yesterday was over $2000, and now he will need surgery on his hip, so that cost will at least double. I would like to help Lauren cover his vet costs, and raise some funds toward her own expenses, as well.

I have known Lauren and her mom for over 2 years now and they are very kind and hard-working people who love animals and have unfortunately fallen on hard times. If you are able, please consider helping them with whatever amount is within your means.

Also of note:

The family lives in Fairfax County but they rent a barn in Leesburg, so they drive back and forth daily. All but one of the horses are quite old (most in their 20s) and are very attached to Lauren and her mom. The young horse is one of the ones they rescued from a neighbor who was moving away and didn't want to take them along.