Angie Specic:

Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is a national volunteer-based charity focused on helping and improving the lives of people living with Crohn’s or colitis.

So ultimately our mission is to find the cure, but along with that, we want to improve the lives of the many people living with Crohn’s or colitis.

Shelby H:

The treatment I’m on costs $10 000 every treatment, and that’s every eight weeks, so it’s kind of limited in a sense, like, what I’ve been able to plan for my future. I’ve always had an idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I kind of had to shift my mindset, because I needed to know that I could be at a job that I would have benefits.

Angie Specic:

People living with Crohn’s or colitis, experience a lot of pain. They might have hundreds of ulcers through their GI tract. They might be having diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, a lot of symptoms that, for most people, are very private.

And on the outside, they may not look sick, but on the inside they are very sick.

Shelby H:

My high school experience, I think, I look on it very differently than some of my friends who were healthy throughout the whole thing. I missed out on, you know, some proms, I wasn’t able to go, I had some surgeries. And so that was my experience, a lot of missed moments.

Angie Specic:

A lot of them feel isolated, and it’s really important that there is support for individuals in the community.

Shelby H:

People who are closest to you, like, your friends or your family, they try to understand it, but they don’t, and the only people who can, like, really talk to you about it, are the people who have lived it.

Angie Specic:

We have things like camps, scholarships. We have education and support, things we do around awareness and building content.

Shelby H:

Crohn’s and Colitis Canada connected me to a lot of other females who have the same type of fistulas that I do. Being able to talk with a group of women who experience what I experience, and then learning what works for them.

And then also kind of validated, like, oh, something wasn’t always wrong with me, I just really didn’t understand what was happening.

Angie Specic:

The partnership with Federated Health Charities is really important, it’s helped our organisation get more well-known. The donations help support local and national programs focused on kids, adults, education, awareness, research, as well as advocacy.

Shelby H:

I don’t think I’d be working fulltime, I don’t think I’d have the relationships that I have today. I don’t think I’d be on the treatment that I am today, if I didn’t have Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.

Angie Specic:

We’re a small charity, so the extension and the support that we receive is critical to help us get that exposure, the awareness to reach donors that might otherwise not engage with Crohn’s and Colitis, so the funding is critical for us.

Shelby H:

To all the donors, I just want to say thank you for helping me live the quality of life that I do today. I am on a treatment that was discovered by research. They’ve made a lot of great strides, but there is so much work that still needs to be done, and you could be a very valuable part of that, so thank you.