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In 2007, a mother in Jacksonville, Florida, USA took a photo of her eleven month old son on a beach. He had his tiny fist clenched, his jaw set, and the expression of someone who had just won something important. He was actually about to eat a fistful of sand. She uploaded the photo to the internet and forgot about it. Two years later it had become one of the most recognisable images on the entire internet. A baby with a clenched fist and a look of pure determination. Two words underneath it. Success Kid. It was used by Barack Obama's presidential team. It appeared on billboards across the United Kingdom. It was licensed to Coca-Cola. Millions of people used it every single day to celebrate small victories. Nobody knew the boy's name. Nobody knew what was happening at home. Before Sammy Griner was born his father Justin was diagnosed with kidney disease. By the time Sammy was old enough to understand what was happening, his father was spending four hours a day three days a week on dialysis. Six years of it. Justin's mother had already passed from the same disease. The family needed a transplant and they needed money for the medication that would follow. His mother was initially reluctant to use her son's famous face to ask for help. She wanted the fundraiser to be about her husband, not a meme. Then she changed her mind. Within five days three hundred people had donated. Within a few more days the story spread across the internet and the total reached over one hundred thousand dollars. The call came. A kidney was available. The transplant was a success. When Sammy was told his father had a new kidney, he burst into tears. The photo that started as a joke about eating sand had saved his father's life.
