Dear Friends of Beads of Courage-Canada,

It is with a thankful heart, that I send this letter to you this holiday season!

On behalf of our team, I want to thank you for your generous support of the mission of Beads of Courage this year. We have been able to further our mission to provide innovative arts-in-medicine programs to children coping with serious illness across Canada. Through the generous support of our donors, talented artists and hospital partners, we have witnessed incredible growth this year.

More than 1500 kids and teens coping with serious illness currently participate in the Beads of Courage Program across Canada.  We know from research that the Beads of Courage program strengthens resilience, alleviates the experience of suffering, and provides a powerful way to for children to tell their story of their treatment journey. Your support and participation makes this possible. Thank you. 

• 9 hospitals throughout Canada now provide the Beads of Courage Program at the bedside to provide a dose of narrative medicine to help children RECORD, TELL and OWN their stories of COURAGE.

Alberta Children's Hospital (Calgary)

Chinook Regional Hospital (Lethbridge)

Allan Blair Cancer Centre (Regina)

Regina General Hospital (Regina) 

Royal University Hospital (Saskatoon)

Saskatoon Cancer Centre (Saskatoon)

Guelph General Hospital (Guelph)

Windsor Regional Hospital (Windsor)

The Moncton Hospital (Moncton)

• The Beads of Courage Strong Body & Mind Program for children and teens coping with mental illness launched and is being piloted at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
• 175 families are supported through our Beads in the Mail Program; these members receive their Beads of Courage through the mail by a supporting member of our team. These children receive treatment at a hospital that does not currently provide the Beads of Courage Program or who live a significant distance away from the hospital where they were originally enrolled.  
• Children and families were encouraged throughout the year as we distributed thousands of generous in-kind donations of handmade glass beads, bead bags, wooden bowls and boxes donated by the artist community at large.

Our son Nash was born on October 31, 2011.  After a healthy pregnancy and quick delivery, we went home with our "healthy baby boy". On November 15th, our world was flipped upside-down when we received the news that Nash had Cystic Fibrosis.  He was 16 days old.  Cystic Fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disease affecting Canadian children and young adults. There is no cure. Cystic Fibrosis causes various effects on the body, but mainly affects the digestive system and lungs.  

At four years old, Nash has had to endure countless clinic visits at the Alberta Children's Hospital that include: throat cultures, stool analysis, ultrasounds, chest x-rays, blood-work, bronchoscopies, endoscopies, needles, needles and more needles. Add that to the numerous daily medications and hours of physiotherapy that will only increase as he gets older. The Beads of Courage program aims at highlighting all that he's been through, and will continue to go through, as the years go on. Each bead represents one part of his journey with Cystic Fibrosis. CF clinic was the first to start the Beads of Courage program at Alberta Children's Hospital and Nash started his necklace when he was a year old.  He enjoys receiving new beads at each clinic visit and helping to string them on his necklace. Nash's favourite bead is his Christmas bead that he picked out that looks like a Christmas light.  

Since February Kira has had 6 surgeries, one of which was to amputate part of her left leg on May 5th, spent 97 nights in the hospital, had 136 needle pokes, 7 blood transfusions and 20 rounds of Chemotherapy.

Luckily, cancer treatment for Osteosarcoma has come a long way since 1977 with cure rates in the 80% range.  Kira has responded really well to the Chemotherapy and was informed this month that she is currently CANCER FREE!

During this journey Kira has been an inspiration to everyone she meets with her positive attitude, and strong spirit!

Photo Credit: Just for You Photography

Our growth since the launch of the first patient population in July 2012 is evidence of the need of the support the Beads of Courage program provides these amazing kids and their families.

With appropriate funding, we hope to expand the patient populations that we can serve as well as offer our programs to more children. We are planning to establish the Beads of Courage Program in 5 more children’s hospitals in 2016. We are proud to support children coping with cancer, chronic illness, cardiac conditions, babies in the NICU, and children and teens with various mental illnesses throughout Canada.

It is with the generous support of donors that we are able to pursue our mission and help children like Nash to RECORD, TELL and OWN his stories of COURAGE through beautiful beads.  As the year comes to a close, if you feel led to support the mission of Beads of Courage-Canada, we would be truly grateful. 

• $20 Carry A Bead Kit: Carry A Bead in honour of a Beads of Courage Member! Take two beads on a journey, at the end, keep one and send the other one back to Beads of Courage to be presented to a child on a tough treatment day. Purchase Here
• Make a tax-deductible donation to Beads of Courage-Canada to support the growth of programs in Canada Donate Here

With gratitude,

Victoria Plouffe

Executive Director

www.beadsofcourage.ca