Our Adventures fundraising

In May 2020 my son and I were accepted by smartpups to get an assistance dog for my son. An assistance dog for his diabetes is amazing they can smell diabetics sugars dropping before the Continuous Glucose Monitor does. An assistance dogs not only save the diabetics life but they can become the diabetics best friend who they can count on.

Since May 2020 my son and I have been fundraising to get to the $20,000 goal, so he can get his diabetes assistance dog that could save his life by alerting to his low sugars. Low sugars are very dangerous if not treated right away can cause seizures, unconsciousness, and or death. This year my son decided not to eat his breakfast right away, he threw a tantrum and then his sugars dropped so low that he went unconscious and started to have seizures, I was so scared but I was able to phone triple zero (the emergency services). I was so scared… I was terrified but I was able to do everything the emergency services asked me to do.

When we first Started Fundraising.

When we first started fundraising I asked Smartpups to create a fundraising page for us. https://www.smartpups.org.au/campaigns/smart-pup-for-jaxon-38216/ you can view by clicking on this link.

After browsing the fundraising directory I had found Billy G’s Cookie dough, I had then contacted them and started to fundraise through them for a month or two, I shared the link every day and everywhere to try to help my little boy get the assistance dog he needs. I ended up raising some money through it and having quite a few orders the only tough part to it was to deliver everyone’s orders especially during Covid times.

While I had been at home I had made up small flyers to share with everyone, the flyers that we made had our link on them until I thought I would add a QR code to it to make it easier for people to find our fundraising site. While walking around my little boy would tell me that he wanted to hand them out. Whilst handing them out he would tell everyone that he has diabetes and that he’s trying to get an assistance dog.

Once we had finished the Billy G’s cookie dough fundraiser I started to look for more ways to fundraise for my little boy. We then found the Krispy Kream fundraiser which I tried to do it I shared it everywhere with no success. After that I never gave up I continued to fundraise while caring for my son and sharing his story on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I then contacted radio shows, I contacted tv stations many never got back to me but I then spoke to A Current Affair who said they would share our story and they would contact us again and film it but then months went by and they forgot to get back in touch with us.

We never gave up

With all the things going on we still never gave up I then got in touch with the Western Weekender and with the Nepean News and our story went out there, because of us getting into the Newspapers we received more donations towards his assistant dog. After that I continued to share his Smartpups link to continue fundraising and asked others to share on their Facebook, we then went on Tiktok and shared all over Tiktok. When I was able to go live on Tiktok I shared our fundraiser live and told everyone on live how diabetes assistance dogs can help diabetics.

When browsing on the internet to find more thing to do to help we came across a site called Raise4Goods with this we started to sell drink bottles, hats, and travel mugs with the Smartpups logo on them along with names on them so everyone who bought one was able to have them personalized.

This went awesome we did ok in this. I then kept browsing on the internet and came across another site called the tshirtmill where we can create our designs on shirts so I started to do this so far we sold some and I find it fun and exciting to do this to share what I am passionate for. This is the link to view all our shirts, bags, blankets, and jumpers with things I’m passionate about. http://tanika333.thetshirtmill.com.au/ I am finding the tshirtmill clothing that I have put designs on so comfortable Even my son likes wearing the shirts he even asks me for some pink ones, my son even asks me to put pictures on it that he likes. Whilst I am using the tshirtmill I am selling some plants I grew on my balcony using aquaponics. I have been placing the plants in a beach trolley and going for walks with my son around our area to sell them, the plants we have been selling are cactus, succulents, and aloe vera.

In November 2020 the most exciting thing happened, the Pop foundation had contacted me to tell me that we were accepted for $10,000 grant money to go towards his assistant dog fundraiser since we were accepted we now only got to raise the last $2000. We are now excited that we will be getting an assistance dog in the next 13-18 months. I am so excited for my son to be able to go on a journey/adventure towards getting his assistant dog that can alert to his low sugars especially while we are on walks or at the park. I will be sharing more on his journey soon.