September 2024

What I wish people knew about living with Ankylosing Spondylitis

By |September 1st, 2024|Blog, Ontario, Rare Disease Stories, Stories, Toronto|

In my 7 years of living with Ankylosing Spondylitis since the age of 21, I’ve had to teach a lot of people quite a few things about my illness. It’s a relatively unheard-of form of arthritis in day-to-day life. Most people have heard of Rheumatoid Arthritis, but not usually [...]

August 2024

Radiant Resilience: Isla the JDM Warrior

By |August 4th, 2024|Blog, JDM, Ontario, Rare Disease, Rare Disease Stories, Stories, Toronto|

Radiant Resilience: Isla the JDM Warrior It was fall of 2021 and Isla was 6 years old. Her life was pretty much centred around her unwavering excitement for Halloween and being able to wear her unicorn costume to go trick-or-treating with her best friend, Alice. Over the month of October, [...]

February 2024

Reine Hodroj – Rare Connection with Bechet’s Disease

By |February 2nd, 2024|Blog, Ontario, Rare Disease Stories, Stories, Toronto|

Reine Hodroj - Learning to Live with Behcet's Disease Living with a chronic illness is an unimaginable challenge, and Behcet's Disease has been my constant companion in this journey. This rare autoimmune condition, characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcers, skin lesions, and systemic inflammation, has disrupted my life in many ways. However, my [...]

March 2023

JIA, Turner Syndrome, Medication and Being a Teen: Alyssa’s Story

By |March 6th, 2023|Rare Disease Stories, Stories|

To recognize Juvenile Arthritis Awareness month, we're highlighting stories from the youth in our community: their diagnosis, their journeys, what they’ve learned, and most importantly, their advice. At Cassie + Friends, we believe that all kids deserve to live pain-free. In Canada, 24,000 children, teens and their families will be affected by Juvenile [...]

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. [...]

September 2022

April 2022

Go to Top