Juvenile Arthritis

Meet Amy and Abby Mazzone – a mom and daughter duo who’ve been fighting JIA together, along with their family, for 12 years. As with many in our community, Methotrexate has played an important, yet, challenging role in their journey to find relief from pain and allow Abby to be…

Dear Friends + Partners, As part of our advocacy for Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month, I am pleased to let you know about a special editorial by Cassie + Friends appearing today in the Toronto Star newspaper and digitally on healthinsight.ca. Click here for a link to the full article. Your voice is…

“I am hoping our daughter will be able to meet other girls her age with arthritis.” “Willing to do anything to learn more about JIA.” “We are hoping to connect with other families that have been through the hard time of arthritis and are trying to have a normal childhood…

Author: Zoya Jiwa, YLC Program Designer and founder of As We Are Style – a blog about facing health challenges with courage and style. Last weekend, Cassie + Friends’ Youth Leadership Committee got together for our first team retreat on a surprisingly sunny afternoon (thank you, Vancouver!) with a lot of excitement…

Last month, Cassie and Friends’ Juvenile Arthritis at School Puppet Show hit the road to bring juvenile arthritis education to the Okanagan! The special puppet show, which was offered free-of-charge to schools by Cassie and Friends with support from a $10,000 grant from the Telus Friendly Futures Foundation, tells the story of Cassie…

My daughter Elena was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis at age 2. Arthritis? That was an elderly person’s disease, I thought. I had no idea the depth of the disease or what would lie ahead for us. First, she started with redness and swelling in her knees. I took her into the doctor…

For many children with JIA or other rheumatic diseases, physical challenges at school can be huge barriers, particularly when it comes to gym class. In a recent study, researchers found that 38% of kids with JIA were unable to participate in gym with their peers. Paired with misunderstanding and lack of…

What makes Family Day a life-changing experience for kids and families affected by Juvenile Arthritis and other rheumatic diseases? Here are the top 7 reasons people attend Cassie and Friends’ Family Day year after year: Knowing you are not alone.  There is simply nothing like connecting and sharing with others…

For those of us who live each day affected by juvenile arthritis or another rheumatic disease, it can often feel like there is no one who can understand what we are going through. Although this can feel isolating, when we share our juvenile arthritis and other rheumatic disease stories with…

As stressful and painful as experiencing a flare can already be at home, the idea of travelling with a flare may sometimes seem downright impossible. With some help however, you and your child can still enjoy taking a trip together. These are Cassie and Friends community member and mother Tanya…

Tanya Cassidy Irwin is a mother and Cassie and Friends community member from Langley, BC. This is her story of navigating pain, travel, medication and the unknown throughout her daughter Emily’s journey with Oligoarticular JIA.    In September 2015 there was the most subtle of hitches in our daughter Emily’s…

Our annual Family Day conference for Juvenile Arthritis and other rheumatic diseases is in JUST ONE WEEK – and we can’t wait! On Saturday, October 13th, we’ll welcome over 370 kids, families and friends for a life-changing day of connection, learning and fun at the Delta Burnaby Conference Centre in…