Sammy Griner, also known as “Success Kid” (now 8 years old!) rose to internet meme fame after his mother, Laney Griner, posted a picture to Flickr in 2007 showing Sammy on the beach at 11 months old, making a confident, sand-clenched fist, with the caption “Why I oughta…” In the subsequent years, Success Kid has appeared all over the internet, from Myspace to Reddit, even inspiring his own meme generator. But now, his family needs help.

Sammy’s father, Justin, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2006 and experienced full kidney failure in 2009. Since then, he’s been kept alive on dialysis, but it’s not a permanent solution, and the Griners are trying to raise $75,000 for a kidney transplant on GoFundMe.

Laney Griner spoke with the Daily Dot about her husband’s condition:

One can only survive with no natural kidney function and using article kidney filtering for so long. His energy and mood are affected, he can no longer work, and he spends 12 hours a week in dialysis clinic. Having been on dialysis for this long greatly increases his risks of developing further complications. The only way to save his life is to get a transplant. There’s no other way around that. We’re the parents of ‘Success Kid’ for goodness sake. If anyone understands the power, the mass, and goodwill of the Internet, it’s those of us lucky to experience it daily.

If the internet was capable of raising $55,000 for potato salad, I think the least we can do is to throw a few bucks their way. Here’s Sammy and his father in July of last year:

(Daily Dot via Neatorama)