This fundraiser is to help my good friend and fellow transporter, Sharon Terrizzi. My name is Maria Sanchez, and I met Sharon several years ago while doing a transport for a rescued dog. Since then, we have become good friends as well as the East Coast duo that does the legs from Homestead to Port Saint Lucie. Sharon has always been willing to go the extra mile, literally, for anything that the rescues have needed. She met one of my fosters that needed to go with me on transports because of medications for her eye ulcer, and she fell in love with Addie (Addison). Sharon bought her Christmas presents and gifts on a frequent basis and always asked about Addie when we spoke or saw each other. Sharon was heartbroken when she learned that Addie had total renal failure, and the rescue and I needed to make the very difficult but humane decision. In all her interactions with the dogs and people, Sharon gained friends every time.

Now her health has taken a heavy blow with the diagnosis that her endometrial cancer has come back despite surgery and radiation 2 years ago. This time, her oncologist has recommended chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Sharon has had the first round of chemotherapy, and her reaction has been pretty dramatic. She lost quite a lot of weight from the side effects and had to change post-chemo medications. To make matters even more complicated, Sharon has not been able to work since the end of January and has no vacation nor sick time left in her bank. Sharon’s place of work, where she has been for almost 25 years, is very understanding and supportive, but she needs to have funds enough to support herself and her family and pets while she is not working.

My request is very simple: Please donate any amount, every donation helps, and please, please share this fundraiser. Thank you so much.