NEWS

Caden was diagnosed with JIA when she was just 3 years old. When we first noticed her limping, we thought she may have hurt her knee skiing as we had just taken her for her first lessons. Then one morning I saw her sneaking down the stairs from her bedroom,…

Hello,  My name is Emma Linsley, and I am from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When I was 15 years old, I was diagnosed with JIA. Along with needing to learn to manage the physical ailments of the disease, this diagnosis brought with it a complex set of other challenges that my support…

C+F Research Partner Highlight: The Brown Lab at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Vancouver, BC. With your help, Cassie + Friends has now invested nearly $500,000 in the Brown Lab in support of their work to discover less invasive tests and more precise treatments for children affected by juvenile arthritis and other…

This article was written and reviewed by the Cassie + Friends Medical Advisory Committee made up of Dr. Roberta Berard (London Health Sciences Centre), Dr. Nadia Luca (Alberta Children’s Hospital) and Dr. Lori Tucker (BC Children’s Hospital). To learn more about the Cassie + Friends Medical Advisory Committee, click here. Some…

Written by young adult JIA patient, Julie Beausoleil, this blog post was originally published by www.takeapaincheck.ca on June 29th, 2021. Take A Pain Check is a juvenile arthritis focussed podcast hosted by 18 year old Natasha Trehan, that provides a recognizable platform for youth and young adults to share their experience with…

The Beginning As a toddler learning to walk, Audrey caught on pretty fast. By her 1st birthday she was already zooming around with impressive coordination and balance. When we noticed that she was limping on-and-off at 18 months of age, we knew something was up. Her right ankle was swollen so…

6.5 million people are affected by arthritis in Canada and about 24,000 of them are children. Cassie + Friends is just for them. Kids like Audrey (pictured right) – diagnosed at just 18 months – need our help to make sure their health and futures are a priority, even beyond…

Hi, my name is Savannah and I am a second-year university student studying kinesiology and living in Windsor, Ontario. I was diagnosed in grade school with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). A while ago, a member of my care team suggested I google Cassie + Friends to learn about the programs…

A vital part of the work we do at Cassie + Friends stems from our involvement in important research in the pediatric rheumatic (PR) disease community. Over the past decade, we’ve helped endow a research chair, fund a new international post-doc, build one of only three PR labs in Canada, launch…

Macrophage Activation Syndrome (MAS) is severe inflammation of the immune system which can be associated with rheumatologic conditions such as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). I was diagnosed with both conditions in October 2010.  My name is Gauri Raj and I am currently 21 years old. When I was 10 years…

Parenting is joyful, frustrating, rewarding and exhausting. Parenting a child with a chronic disease gives you a double dose of it all; you face challenges most parents never dream of. You juggle doctors, therapists, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacies and the list goes on. Then there are the emotional and behavioural…

Marissa has joined us on Team Cassie + Friend in the 2021 virtual run/walk for kids and families affected by juvenile arthritis. Read why she’s stepping up for her daughter, Charlotte, and all youth affected by juvenile arthritis. When my daughter, Charlotte was just 2 years old, she had a…