July 2020

Self-care, self-injections, and other self-management tips from our youth panelists.

By |July 30th, 2020|Advice, Mental Health, Pain Tips, Teen Transitions, Virtual Youth Panel|

The Virtual Youth Panel event is now available for viewing on Youtube and IGTV. You'll find timestamps of the video on Youtube to direct you to the questions/answers you'll want to hear the most. This is an excellent resource to share with relatives, friends, sports coaches and teachers to help them understand life with [...]

June 2020

Cassie + Friends partners with SickKids to help teens conquer pain

By |June 24th, 2020|Current Research, News, Pain Tips|

Are you wondering how your child can learn to manage pain on their own? Is your teen with rheumatic disease looking for a way to stay motivated, monitor their symptoms and track how they’re feeling on a day-to-day basis? We’ve teamed up with SickKids on a research study to bring the iCanCope with Pain [...]

May 2020

Mental Health Week 2020: Alison’s journey with mental health and arthritis

By |May 7th, 2020|Mental Health, News, Teen Transitions, TMJ|

Alison Legge is a member of the Cassie + Friends Youth Leader Committee. She spoke at Cassie + Friends Family Day 2016 as a youth champion, speaking about the impact chronic disease has had on her mental health. A lot has happened since then, and Alison has learned she is not alone and there [...]

January 2019

School Toolkit: Gym class with JIA

By |January 17th, 2019|Advice, Elementary, High School, School, School Toolkit|

For many children with JIA or other rheumatic diseases, physical challenges at school can be huge barriers, particularly when it comes to gym class. In a recent study, researchers found that 38% of kids with JIA were unable to participate in gym with their peers. Paired with misunderstanding and lack of knowledge on the [...]

November 2018

3 tips for travelling with a child with a flare

By |November 9th, 2018|Advice, Pain Tips, Stories|

As stressful and painful as experiencing a flare can already be at home, the idea of travelling with a flare may sometimes seem downright impossible. With some help however, you and your child can still enjoy taking a trip together. These are Cassie and Friends community member and mother Tanya Cassidy Irwin's three tips for [...]

Emily’s story: Navigating pain, planes and biologics

By |November 9th, 2018|Pain Tips, Stories|

Tanya Cassidy Irwin is a mother and Cassie and Friends community member from Langley, BC. This is her story of navigating pain, travel, medication and the unknown throughout her daughter Emily's journey with Oligoarticular JIA.    In September 2015 there was the most subtle of hitches in our daughter Emily's step. Within three weeks she [...]

April 2018

Alison’s story: Navigating JIA mental health

By |April 16th, 2018|Family Day, Mental Health, Post- Secondary, Stories, YLN|

At Family Day 2016, Cassie and Friends volunteer Alison Legge gave a powerful speech about Juvenile Arthritis and the effect it has on mental health. This February, Alison underwent bilateral TMJ replacement surgery to ease the pain in her jaw, and is currently having a speedy recovery. She is now the chair of Cassie and Friends’ [...]

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