NEWS

One of the many impacts of COVID was a surge in homeschooling, not just during the pandemic but well after. This back-to-school season, we’re pleased to share some tips from JIA parent, Kathleen Bailey, who has homeschooled her children for many years and has a lot of great advice for…

Did you know that the University of Saskatchewan has one of the longest, continuously operating pediatric rheumatology research programs in the world? Read more to learn why the IDEA lab is proud to partner with Cassie + Friends and support activities like our annual Saskatoon Run/Walk on September 7th, which…

For this edition of, “Where Are They Now?”, we caught up with Ravia Frison. You may remember Ravia from our What is JIA video, where she poignantly shares what it is like to live with an often invisible disease like JIA. We’re so honoured to share an update from Ravia, including some…

Great news for Canadian autoinflammatory patients of all ages: Canada is getting its own registry for systemic autoinflammatory diseases! What exactly is a systemic autoinflammatory disease? Systemic autoinflammatory diseases (SAID) currently include over 50 rare conditions that are caused by uncontrolled systemic and organ-specific inflammation. These disorders usually start in…

Cassie + Friends is excited to share that Fresh Slice Pizza’s charitable foundation, Fresh Slice Cares, is donating $1600 to help spread Juvenile Arthritis (JA) awareness and keep affected kids active through Team Cassie + Friends! The goal of the Fresh Slice Cares Foundation is to “Help Kids be Kids”…

nternational Youth Day Edition: Tyler Mah + Gauri Raj For International Youth Day 2024, we’re delighted to announce a new series called “Where Are They Now?” At Cassie + Friends, youth are at the heart of everything we do, and we love being able to support them as they continue…

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, we started to notice that she…

Annika hurt her ankle in December 2021. She complained of pain, but we didn’t see any swelling or bruising. We took her to our family doctor, who then sent her for an X-ray. He didn’t see anything from that, so we went home but Annika still complained of pain. In…

Alana Hurov’s daughter, Katherine, was diagnosed with Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) at just two years old. Katherine’s journey, like that of many children battling rheumatic diseases, has been challenging yet marked by her remarkable resilience at such a young age. “My daughter’s journey with JIA has not been easy,”…

For Lillian – Our Rheumatic Disease Warrior Our journey with Rheumatic Disease began in June 2022. After 11 days of fever, Lillian, then just shy of her 3rd birthday, was seen, diagnosed, and treated for Incomplete Kawasaki disease at CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario). Luckily, she responded to the…

Parenting a teen can be tricky. Parenting a teen with a painful rheumatic disease like Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis can be heartbreaking. But it can also be incredibly inspiring, as you’ll learn from Roam’s mom, Jana. She was reminded of her son’s strength and resilience during our Team Cassie + Friends…

Hello, my name is Queena, and I was diagnosed with Lupus and Juvenile Arthritis in 2021. During this time, it was hard to ask for help. For the most part my “illness” – or whatever was causing my swollen joints and excruciating pain – was invisible. It wasn’t until later…