Nissa Sampson was running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on her own birthday when she hit Mile 23 and found the one surprise that could keep her legs moving: her dog Zissou, who is battling an untreatable cancer, waiting curbside in a bandana that read “Happy Birthday Mom.”
Sampson ran the race for the Live Like Roo Foundation, the Chicago-area nonprofit that helped cover Zissou's cancer treatments, according to NBC Chicago. Zissou's cancer cannot be cured, though chemotherapy can slow its progression, and the dog was estimated to have 540 days to live. The marathon on Sunday fell on day 268 of that estimated timeline, according to the same report.
Before the race even began, Sampson texted her husband, Chris Griffith, from the starting line — a message for Zissou, per NBC Chicago's account. The outlet also reported that Sampson had lost her cat to cancer around the same time Zissou was diagnosed, adding another layer of weight to a year already defined by loss and uncertainty.
A Surprise Planned Along Rescue Row
The reunion at Mile 23 was not spontaneous. Sarah Lauch, executive director of the Live Like Roo Foundation, planned the moment with Griffith and had it captured on camera, the station's report noted. The stretch of South Michigan Avenue where it happened sits within the marathon's official community cheer zone for charity runners, spanning roughly Mile 22 to 24 — a section known as Rescue Row for the concentration of animal welfare cheer stations there, according to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
Sampson said seeing Zissou right when she wanted to quit reinforced both her bond with her dog and the importance of Live Like Roo's mission, per the same account. Live Like Roo was founded in February 2016 by Lauch after the death of her own rescue dog, Roo, who was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer in 2015; Roo's viral bucket list became the inspiration for the organization, as Chicago Stars Magazine reported in 2020.
A Financial Lifeline for Families Like Sampson's
The need the foundation addresses is enormous. Roughly 1 in 4 dogs will develop cancer in their lifetime, a rate that climbs to 1 in 2 for dogs 10 and older, according to figures cited by the American Animal Hospital Association, which notes cancer is the leading cause of death in adult dogs. The costs that follow a diagnosis can be steep — chemotherapy doses typically run $150 to $600 each, and full treatment protocols can average between $3,000 and $10,000 over several months, per figures reported by CareCredit.
Since its 2016 founding through 2026, Live Like Roo has awarded more than $3.7 million in financial grants and supported over 35,000 families facing pet cancer diagnoses, according to the organization. Roughly 75% of its budget goes directly to veterinary medical services, with another 15% funding care packages that include blankets, toys, tennis balls, and McDonald's gift cards modeled on Roo's own favorite things. The foundation also runs the Booker Fund, which covers bucket-list experiences and hotel stays for pets in hospice care.
Team Roo's Growing Marathon Presence
Sampson ran as part of Team Roo, the foundation's official charity team at the Chicago Marathon, which raised over $100,000 this year to help pet families navigating cancer diagnoses. That builds on momentum from the 2025 race, when 35 Team Roo runners raised more than $75,000 — part of a steady climb in fundraising ahead of this year's event.
The marathon's broader charity program is itself one of the largest in the world: it set an all-time fundraising record in 2025 by raising $47.1 million for nonprofits, pushing total funds raised since 2002 past $405 million, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire. For the 2026 race, about a third of its 55,000 participants are expected to run on behalf of an official charity team.
Beyond the financial support, the emotional toll of a pet's cancer diagnosis can be as heavy as the medical bills. For Sampson, Live Like Roo's mission crystallized at Mile 23 — not as an abstraction, but as her own dog, in a birthday bandana, waiting for her to finish what she started.
