WE know him as “Success Kid” — the toddler with a clenched fist and look of satisfaction who’s become the Internet’s most positive meme.

    But now Sam Griner is 8 years old and is using his online fame to help out his sick dad.

    His mother, Laney Griner from Jacksonville, Florida, the U.S., set up a GoFundMe page to raise the US$75,000 her husband, Justin, needs for the kidney transplant and years of subsequent medications.

    “Please help us reach our goal so that Justin may get the pre-treatments and transplant he desperately needs,” she wrote on the fundraising page.

    By Tuesday afternoon, the page had raised more than US$38,000 of the goal.

    Although Griner initially decided against using the notoriety of “Success Kid” to help raise funds, she eventually spoke to The Daily Dot about the campaign because of her fears for her husband.

    Justin, 39, discovered his kidneys were failing before the birth of their son and he now spends about four hours a day, three days a week undergoing dialysis.

    The funds will supplement the money Medicare puts towards the procedure. The family will also need US$12,000 for just the first year of medications, although he’ll be on drugs for the rest of his life.

    It is also not yet clear where the kidney will come from and so the family is also using the GoFundMe page to ask strangers to see if they could be a match. So far, no friends or family members have proved a match.

    To help raise awareness about her husband’s need for a kidney, she turned to her son for help.

    Laney snapped the photo of Sammy on the beach when he was 11 months old. The image looks as if he is punching the air — but she said he was actually about to put sand in his mouth.

    She put the photo on her Flickr page in 2007 and two years later, she noticed that it was being used for memes before eventually becoming the beloved “Success Kid” meme around 2010.

    (SD-Agencies)