7-year-old girl with cancer gets letters from puppies worldwide

A 7-year old girl battling cancer in Wisconsin is getting thousands of letters of support - from "puppies" all over the world!

Tens of thousands of people and their pet dogs have been reaching out to little Emma Mertens, trying to raise her spirits.

In late January, Emma was diagnosed with DIPG, a rare and inoperable brain tumor.

Because Emma loves animals, a family friend had the idea to have her dog send her a letter and asked other friends to do the same.

Soon, the puppy letter-writing campaign went viral - and Emma and her family were getting thousands of letters and emails a day!

"Those friends shared it with their friends and so on and so on and it just literally went viral," said Geoff Martens, her dad. "Every state and I'm going to guess, 50 countries."

In just a few weeks, Emma has received more than than 100,000 letters.

Her parents say the puppy pictures have made her smile and help her deal with the frequent radiation treatments.