How one act of KINDNESS from a 10 year old girl, inspired me to create this campaign. 

On Wednesday, November 8th, I went over my friend's house. Her daughter, Marli greeted me at the door and was so excited to give me a surprise! While she had me cover my eyes, she ran over to her backpack and came back with something. She told me to open my hands out and presented me with a Hersey's Bar of chocolate. As I opened my eyes and saw my favorite chocolate bar, her face lit up!

She was over the moon excited to GIVE! She even told me that as soon as she bought the chocolate after school, she couldn't wait to present it to me. That day, she also surprised her brother and cousin with their favorites candies. She said, "I love the feeling of giving. Giving makes me so happy!"

I smiled ear to ear, gave her a hug and thanked her for her very thoughtful gift! 

While helping her with some homework, she later asked me how many followers I had on instagram. I told her about 5.6K. Then she pondered that number for a second and said, "If each person gave just $1.00, you would have enough to cover Oliver's treatment expenses." 

It's incredibly amazing how someone so young can be so wise! She solved my problem so easily! 

Marli made me realize something really important. In her mind, she wasn't concerned about the possibility of "What will say, do or think if I ask for help/donations?" She wasn't filled with doubts and fears, rather she was filled with hope and a sense of possibility! All she thought about was, here's the problem and here is a solution!

Then I shared with her that I thought about maybe creating a gofundme account but I was hesitant. Then she said she thought about it too but she's too young to set it up herself! 

That afternoon, she taught me a HUGE lesson.

People want to help.
People want to feel a part of something.
People want to GIVE and make an impact (however small or big) in order to lend a helping hand to others.

So here I am, with the courage instilled in me because of Marli, asking for help.


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This is our story:

On January 9th 2014,  my friend, Gui text me saying, "You know what you need? A dog. And you know what? I'm gonna get you one for free!"

It was a text out of the blue and I don't even ever remember telling him I wanted a dog. Plus, the apartment complex I was living in had a no pets allowed rule. But I was intrigued so I asked him for some basic info on this dog.

He sent me this photo and I fell in LOVE. It was meant to be!!!!

Without really thinking about it, I agreed to take this adorable 8 month pup in. That was a Thursday and literally within 24 hours, Oliver entered my life and found his FOREVER HOME.

BTW, he previously had a weird name (Chaka) so I changed it to Oliver, I think we can all agree this name suits him better!


Oliver came into my life on January 10th 2014 and adopting him was the BEST DECISION I've ever made.


Although, the first 24 hours of having him home, were pretty eventful to say the least!

When his previous owners dropped him off, I asked where he sleeps. ( I wanted to make my new pup feel as comfortable as possible with this transition). They said to put a pillow on the floor by my bed and he'll sleep there. No problem, that's exactly what I did.

That Saturday morning, I woke up to my sweet new pup laying on his pillow beside my bed. There were some little black specks of what I thought was dirt from his paws. Until those little black specks started moving around. I jumped out of bed,  concerned and started freaking out even more when I noticed those same black specks crawling up my bedroom walls. 

TICKS! An insane amount of ticks (what felt like a million) infested our house. I felt so bad for Ollie boy! He didn't show any signs of itching the night before and his previous owners never mentioned this was a problem. So I sprung into action. We went to Petco, I bought special shampoo, a tick collar and literally flipping the entire house, washing, vacuuming cleaning everything to kill those pests. 

Because he was mine now, I wasn't going to send him back. We were in this through the good times and bad!

After days and weeks of cleaning each corner & crevice, inspecting Oliver's body constantly and removing all the ticks, giving him special baths and using tick collars, we finally got rid of those yucky bloodsuckers!

After that fun experience, we almost got evicted not once but twice (remember, I was harboring an "illegal" pet lol), we finally got the proper paperwork to keep him, it's been smooth sailing ever since. 

OLIVER is the sweetest, kindest, friendliest, most amazing dog ever. He LOVES on everyone he meets, young or old. If you know him in real life, I am 1000% certain, you love him too! He bring a smile and joy to everyone!

He is a fan favorite in the neighborhood and he has been nicknamed "Champion" a few years ago by the maintenance man who takes care of the property.

Champion is such a fitting nickname due to his current circumstance. 


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In mid October 2018, I noticed he had this weird hacking cough. He coughed a few times over a few days so I took him to the vet. They did a chest X-ray and discovered some not so great things. Next thing I know, we are sending the results off to a specialist and the vet is referring me to an oncology specialist. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

My world literally came crashing down on me.

Oliver is 5.5 years old, he's been healthy and strong. We never missed a checkup, his up to date on all of his shots, I feed him great quality food and he gets spoiled with love. Besides that weird cough, he wasn't showing any other signs of being sick. But after further testing and vet appointments, they discovered lots of issues happening inside of his body. His chest X-ray showed lots of white matter in his lungs and heart, swollen lymph nodes all over his body and blood-work was off. The swollen lymph nodes in his neck and chest were putting pressure on his airways, causing that cough.

On October 24th 2018, we got the heartbreaking news: it's Lymphoma. 

Time stopped. A thousand questions, fears and doubts flooded my mind. But just the thought of coming home and Oliver never being to greet me crushed me with a pain I've never felt before.

In days, we were given two options: do nothing and Oliver has 1-2 months of life left OR fight his cancer head on with a 25 week CHOP (chemo) treatment. 

I just want and need my baby to get better! To kill the cancer cells and give him the best chance of life. There's no other option. He deserves to live a long, healthy and amazing life because he's given me so much happiness, joy, laughter and unconditional LOVE for the past almost 5 years.  I could never repay him but I sure as heck won't give up trying! 

So here we are two chemotherapy treatments in, FIGHTING like hell!!!!

Oliver is a champion and he will BEAT THIS!

Here is where we ask for your help and willingness to battle alongside with us!

CHOP chemotherapy treatment costs upwards to about $6,000 (this is best case scenario if he doesn't need any extra testing/medicine/specialist appointments along the way).

In just 3 short weeks of testing, vet visits with specialists and 2 treatments, it's already cost us $2,257.46. EKK! There are still 23 more weeks of treatment. Oliver is hanging strong and responding really well, so we have high hopes that he will be in 18% of dogs who beat lymphoma and go into remission indefinitely. 

I received the courage to ask you for help because Marli inspired me to see that people want to help. People want to give and contribute what they can to causes that mean something to them. I hope you will find it in your heart to donate even just $1.00 to help cover the costs of Oliver's treatment.

So why is our fundraising goal $10,000 if treatment will be an estimated $6,000?


I decided to give back to the girl that GAVE us so much!

After Oliver's bills are covered, I will donate the remaining funds raised to a CHARITY/ORGANIZATION of Marli's choice.

Giving makes her happy so I wanna help her feel an overflow of JOY knowing she's made a HUGE IMPACT not just in our lives but in some many others! <3

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, to donate if you can and to share this page with others who could also be part of something great too! 

Oliver sends slobbery kisses and his mommy will forever be grateful to all the INCREDIBLE PEOPLE who are so generously helping us give Ollie the best chance ever on this mission to kick cancer's ass! We love you!