November 2023

October 2023

Seeing Possibilities after Diagnosis: a Uveitis Story

By |October 24th, 2023|About JIA, Advice, Advocacy, Blog, CREW, Rare Disease, Saskatchewan, Stories, Uveitis|

Throughout my life I have been granted many titles; mom, wife, daughter, registered nurse, and writer are just a few. These are the titles that are associated with my name. I could be described as outgoing, humorous, modest, and perhaps kind too. These would be some characteristics that people from a distance would use [...]

OPT-JIA Premedication Trial

By |October 17th, 2023|Blog, Current Research, Future Research, Injection, JIA, Medication, Research|

When I first heard of the medication Ondansetron, I couldn’t help but think about how its name sounded like a character from the Transformers movies. While this medication doesn’t fight space aliens or have a special effects budget, it does hold the capacity to TRANSFORM lives. How might you ask?Methotrexate is a [...]

September 2023

Navigating School + Life with JIA – Jessica’s Story

By |September 6th, 2023|Blog, Ontario, Stories, Toronto|

"I soon began to experience extreme pain in my wrists, which would cause challenges for me whenever I would be at school or would work on school assignments." My name is Jessica Gill. I am from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis at the age of eight years [...]

August 2023

C+F Inventing Room: Reinventing the Injection Experience for Kids and Families Affected by JA and other childhood rheumatic diseases in Canada

By |August 31st, 2023|Advice, Advocacy, Blog, Injection, Medication|

Inspired by the Roald Dahl Charity’s Marvellous Nurse Inventing Rooms, on August 23rd, we hosted our very own C+F Inventing Room to ask the community and together envision what our C+F Injection Coping Kits should include. With the help of medical experts, parents and youth, we dove in and got to work! We started [...]

June 2023

Youth Story: My experience with JIA and finding Cassie + Friends

By |June 28th, 2023|B.C., Blog, Fundraising, JIA, Movement, Physical Activity, Stories, Vancouver|

"Throughout all of these experiences that I have had with Cassie + Friends, there is one throughline: Understanding. Understanding is a concept not to be underestimated." Meet Ciara. It was after after my body couldn’t row anymore, my hands couldn’t hold the pencil, my joints ached in pain, and after my diagnosis of [...]

May 2023

February 2023

It’s Not Easy Being Rare: Working Together to Navigate the Challenges of Systemic Autoinflammatory Diseases

By |February 9th, 2023|Blog, News, Rare Disease Stories, Stories|

It is not easy being rare. Being rare means that there is not a lot of knowledge, research, and treatment options available for youth and families affected by systemic autoinflammatory diseases (SAIDs). And that is exactly what the recently formed Can-SAID advisory group, a branch of Cassie + Friends (C+F), wants to change. [...]

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