Stories – Be The Cure

Research Spotlight: Gas Vaccine Trial

“We’ve been building up to this for years” Group A Streptococcus is a bacteria responsible for approximately 500,000 deaths every year globally. Particularly common in indigenous populations in Canada and Australia, this has led to a joint effort between the two countries in the form of the GAS Vaccine Trial led by Dr. Michael Good […]

Research Spotlight: Digital Health Unit Launch

“I may be dead in two years. We don’t know.” Candy Marriott began her journey with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, discovering the disease by accident during another scan. Her physician referred her to participate in a couple of clinical trials to help with her disease progression. Clinical trial participants like the one Candy is participating in […]

Reaserch Spotlight: The Peak Team

“Children in particular are prone to having less research done to support their care.” PEAK stands for Pediatric Emergency Advancing Knowledge and provides health research support to figure out how to treat children who come into the emergency room and other medical support facilities. Clinicians involved with child patients have found that research is a […]

Paul Johnson

When Paul Johnson went in for his heart surgery in 2015, he knew there were risked involved, but he never could have predicted what came next. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Paul had been exposed to a bacteria called M. chimaera, and it would slowly begin to spread throughout his body. The contamination was […]

Rosalyn Abernethy

When Colin Abernethy was told that his daughter Rosalyn had Fragile X, it was a relief. From an early age Rosalyn experienced difficulties in reaching certain development milestones, and with this diagnosis, it opened the door to finding some solutions for her. Since then, the Abernathys have been highly involved in Canadian and American Fragile […]

Clarice Chrisp

For almost 20 years, Clarice Chrisp has been living with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC), a rare autoimmune liver condition. Her constant lack of energy and unexplained fatigue have affected her life significantly, but she has remained engaged and active in seeking to further the science behind the disease. This desire to be involved led to […]

Donato Bernardo

Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people world wide. When Donato Bernardo was told that he had cancer, he knew he wasn’t going to stop at anything to fight it. He began a 5 year battle that would see him undergoing every known treatment in the system. Despite experiencing some mild success at […]

Deborah McLeod

“It’s great to be part of something that’s going to help save lives.” When 54 year old Deborah McLeod found herself struggling to breathe properly and unable to walk more than 25 feet, she knew something was seriously wrong. After speaking with the cardiologist at Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert, Deborah was transferred over […]

Karen Hamilton

“There are no real limits anymore.” Every year, over 1,600 Canadians are added to organ transplant waiting lists. Donor organs have to meet certain criteria to be used in transplants, so supply is scarce and some people will never receive a new organ. But now, there may be a way to change that. A cardiac […]

Jillian Karst

“Everything you do… is helping the next person.” We’ve been coming to Edmonton [from Saskatchewan] quite a bit in the past year because of Jillian’s psoriasis. In kindergarten, she’d actually gotten strep throat, and then got what they call guttate psoriasis. It’s quite common apparently when you get strep throat. We had lots of trouble […]