NEWS

“I was known as the ‘girl who gets sick easily’ within my family. This really impacted my mental health and acceptance for JIA for years.” Did you know? Living with Juvenile Arthritis (JA)and other childhood rheumatic diseases like Lupus and JDM can increase your child’s risk of depression and anxiety. A…

Thank you to everyone who helped make Giving Tuesday a huge success for children and families affected by Juvenile Arthritis and other rheumatic diseases – including one very special gift we wanted to share with you from eight-year old Iyla. Iyla, from Meaford, Ontario, has been diligently raising money for…

Hi! My name is Cassie! That name might sound familiar because my parents started Cassie + Friends after I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis at 20 months. I am now 17 years old, in grade 12, and taking a break from filling out university applications as I write this.…

Fun fact: Did you know that the microbiome plays a key role in how our immune system functions and in our overall health? In fact, around 70% of our body’s immune cells are located in the gut! To shed some light on what that could mean in the context of JIA,…

Three-year-old Katherine can keep up with other kids now, but that wasn’t always the case… When Alana noticed her daughter was limping at the playground, she didn’t know what to think – especially when the limp didn’t go away. She decided to bring her to a doctor to be examined.…

Thanks to the generous support of our donors, we are very excited to now be recruiting for our second International Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology in the Brown Lab (http://kbrownlab.ca) at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Read below to hear from our first fellow, Dr. Lovro Lamot, a Pediatric Rheumatologist…

Hey! My name is Josie Fratarcangeli, and I am from Woodstock, Ontario. I was diagnosed with Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis when I was 4 years old. I am currently 17 years old – and have just “graduated” from London Health Science’s Pediatric Medical Day Unit (PMDU) where I got my…

Hi! My name is Hayley. I was diagnosed with JIA at the age of 13. Around age 12 I realized that I could not straighten my fingers. Young me was very medically inclined, so after some googling, I diagnosed myself with arthritis. It took a long time to convince the…

Make lemonade! At least that’s what Jacob Shiell did when he was diagnosed with Systemic Idiopathic Juvenile Arthritis (SJIA) on his eighth birthday in October 2021.  Jacob’s journey began with unexplained foot pain and swelling. Over the next few weeks, the pain and swelling worsened and spread to his right…

Hello there! My name is Emily Bessey. I am 19 years old and live in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. My journey with JIA and TMJ started way back in 2009 when I was just 6 years old. I would go to school limping, hardly able to walk, but return home…

Over the last six years, the Prime Family Bottle Drive has raised an astounding $80,000+ in support of Cassie + Friends research and support programs. Now they are ready to pass the bottle one last time through a legacy partnership with BC Return It and Regional Recycling Depots across the province!…

In honour of Autoinflammatory month this August, we are introducing the members of Cassie + Friends’ new Canadian Systemic Autoinflammatory Patient Advisory Group (Can-SAID). We are beginning with autoinflammatory patient and parent and Can-SAID board chair, Ian Stedman. Ian Stedman is an autoinflammatory patient and parent. Always sick as a…