👋 Welcome to Smileworthy, where we round up all the good things happening out there that are not receiving the attention they deserve!

This week: a stranger who can't swim dove into a freezing Lake Michigan to save an 8-month-old baby after a gust of wind blew her stroller into the water. Plus: the husband who stood on his feet for 60 hours so his wife could keep her hair during chemo, a soccer captain performing CPR on a seagull mid-match, 158 giant tortoises returning to an island where they'd been extinct for 180 years, and a 12-year-old who ran into a burning house to save a 72-year-old woman.

Let’s jump right in👇

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Feel good stories from Happilynews.com guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Every 25 minutes, for up to 10 hours straight, Jonny Cass pulled a frozen cap from beneath three layers of dry ice, checked that it hit exactly -30°C, and gently placed it on his wife Ashley's head. He did this six times over the course of her chemotherapy. Roughly 60 hours on his feet, all so she could keep her hair.

Not because anyone asked him to. Because he couldn't imagine doing anything else.

It started with a lump. Ashley Cass, 25, found it in her chest in July 2025 and figured it was nothing. Her mom told her to get it checked anyway. The diagnosis came back as breast cancer – and everything moved fast from there.

Ashley and Jonny left their home in California and moved back to her home state of Kansas for treatment. They were given two weeks to complete IVF before chemo started. And somewhere in that blur of appointments and impossible timelines, they decided to get married, too.

The wedding was October 11. Chemotherapy began October 14.

Three days. That's all the breathing room they got. But Jonny never flinched. From the moment of Ashley's diagnosis, he treated every challenge the same way – as something they would face together.

Of all the things cancer threatened to take, Ashley was most worried about her hair. Not out of vanity – out of survival. She wanted to go to the grocery store without being "the girl with cancer." She wanted to sit at her desk and feel like herself. She knew that keeping her hair would protect her mental health in ways that were hard to explain but impossible to ignore.

So she chose cold capping – a process where a freezing cap is worn during treatment to restrict blood flow to the scalp, slowing the metabolic rate of hair follicle cells and shielding them from chemotherapy drugs. It works. But it's grueling.

Each session meant one hour of cold capping before infusions, continuous capping throughout, and five hours after – eight to 10 hours total. The cap has to be swapped every 25 minutes, which means someone needs to be right there, pulling a fresh one from the cooler, checking the temperature, timing the switch perfectly.

Most people hire a professional cold capper or lean on a rotating team. Jonny volunteered immediately – and he never handed off a single session. He didn't just want to be in the room. He wanted to do something. He was excited to learn the process, eager to get it right, determined to be the one standing beside her every time.

"Cold capping helped Jonny as well, because it gave him a way to physically be involved in my treatment," Ashley said. "It was his own way of fighting cancer and it made us feel like we were in this together."

And here's the thing about being a caregiver during cancer – so much of it is standing on the sidelines, feeling helpless. You watch the person you love fight a battle you can't take from them. Jonny found a way off the sidelines. Six rounds of chemo. Roughly 60 hours of capping. Days spent on his feet – not because it was easy, but because the person he loved needed him standing.

"It also gave him an outlet to help me in a really important way, which was so good for him in a time when you can feel so helpless," Ashley said.

It worked. Ashley kept a large amount of her hair. And on January 29 – her 25th birthday – she rang the bell at the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Overland Park, officially cancer free.

She still has a road ahead. A double mastectomy is scheduled for March, likely followed by radiation and targeted drugs through October. But on that January day, Jonny made sure they celebrated – even when Ashley was too cautious to let herself feel the joy.

"He always reminds me to keep loving life and to keep living joyfully," Ashley said. "I felt so seen in that moment, because Jonny knew I was happy and proud of myself even if I couldn't show it – he celebrated for me.

"He's always shown up for me in big ways and in small ways, and that was an example of how he shows up for me in small ways."

Some people say love is about showing up. Jonny showed up – and never sat down.

It’s not all doom and gloom out there. Here’s some positive news items from publications around the world.

🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois
Man Jumps Into Freezing Lake to Save Baby After Wind Blows Stroller Into the Water
Lio Cundiff can't swim. That didn't stop him. When a gust of wind sent an 8-month-old girl's stroller rolling into Lake Michigan at Belmont Harbor, Cundiff dove into the frigid water without hesitation. He kept the baby's head above the surface as the stroller dipped, and bystanders helped pull them both to shore. The baby was breathing and crying when they got her out – the best sound Cundiff ever heard. He spent the night in hospital for heart monitoring. His take? "I wasn't going to let that baby die." (Read more 👉 Live5 News)

🇹🇷 Istanbul, Turkey
Soccer Captain Saves Seagull With CPR After Ball Strikes It Mid-Match
In the 22nd minute of an amateur playoff final in Istanbul, goalkeeper Muhammet Uyanik's clearance struck a low-flying seagull, sending it crashing to the turf. Istanbul Yurdum Spor captain Gani Catan sprinted over, found the bird unresponsive, and started chest compressions – despite having zero first-aid training. Two minutes later, the seagull's legs twitched, its eyes opened, and it was carried to the sideline for medical treatment. Catan's team lost the match and the championship. His response? "We missed out on the championship, but helping save a life is a good thing. This was more important." Fair play. (Read more 👉 The Independent)

🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois
World's Smallest Pacemaker – the Size of a Grain of Rice – Saves Babies With Heart Defects
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed the world's tiniest known pacemaker – smaller than a grain of rice, implanted with a minimally invasive injection, and here's the best part: it dissolves on its own when it's no longer needed. No second surgery required. The device is designed for babies born with congenital heart defects who typically need temporary pacing for about seven days after surgery. A small, flexible patch on the patient's chest detects irregular heartbeats and wirelessly controls the pacemaker using pulses of near-infrared light. Despite its size, it delivers as much stimulation as a full-size device. (Read more 👉 GoodGoodGood)

🌐 Online
Hank & John Green Raise $4.1 Million in 2026 'Project For Awesome' Charity Livestream
The Green brothers just broke their own record. Their annual 48-hour charity livestream, Project For Awesome, raised $4,133,000 over a single weekend in February – the largest haul in the event's 19-year history. Half the funds go to charities voted on by their online community, the Nerdfighters. The other half is split between Save the Children and Partners in Health, with this year's contribution specifically supporting global efforts to end tuberculosis. Perks for donors included signed art prints, exclusive podcast episodes, and the first two chapters of Hank's next book. (Read more 👉 GoodGoodGood)

🇪🇨 Floreana Island, Galapagos
158 Giant Tortoises Released on Galápagos Island Where They'd Been Extinct for 180 Years
For the first time since the mid-1800s, giant tortoises are walking on Floreana Island again. On February 20, conservationists released 158 juvenile tortoises bred from a lineage everyone thought was gone forever – until researchers discovered tortoises carrying Floreana DNA on a nearby volcano in 2000. A decades-long breeding program did the rest. The tortoises, aged 8 to 13, are the first of 12 locally extinct species planned for reintroduction as part of the largest ecological restoration project ever undertaken in the Galápagos. Charles Darwin was among the last people to see these animals on Floreana. Now they're back. (Read more 👉 Good News Network)

🇺🇸 Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
12-Year-Old Girl Risks Her Life to Save Elderly Woman From Burning Home
When a fire engulfed a wooden home in Lawrenceburg shortly before 4:30 a.m., a 12-year-old girl pulled a 72-year-old woman with limited mobility out of the burning structure while her sibling called 911. The child sustained burns to her extremities in the process. Tyler McDow, director of Lawrence County Fire and Rescue, said it best: "That child made a decision that somebody else's life was more important than hers." Both were transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center – the elderly woman in stable condition with significant burns, the girl with minor injuries. (Read more 👉 Sunny Skyz)

A unique, sometimes quirky, but always eye-catching photo feature each week.

When Punch-kun was born at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan last July, his mother wanted nothing to do with him. Two zookeepers stepped in to hand-raise the tiny Japanese macaque – but when they introduced him to the 60-monkey troop on Monkey Mountain in January, he was swatted away, rejected, left to play alone.

So keepers gave him a friend: an IKEA orangutan plushie. Punch clung to it like a surrogate mom – carrying it everywhere, sleeping curled around it, dragging it to safety when bigger monkeys got rough.

The internet fell hard. #HangInTherePunch trended worldwide. IKEA Japan donated 33 stuffed toys to the zoo. And then, the update everyone was hoping for – an adult female monkey approached Punch and began grooming him, one of the strongest signals of trust and acceptance in primate social life.

He's now playing with the troop regularly. The stuffed orangutan is still nearby, but these days, Punch-kun is finding he needs it a little less.

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After a bride's father unexpectedly passed away she didn't want anyone else to take his place on her big day – so covered her heels in one of his favorite shirts so he could "walk her down the aisle."

*Studies show that watching heartwarming videos can boost your mood. So sit back and start your weekend positively - doctors orders!

🧠 Brain Teaser Answer