Janice's Journey to Recovery & Strength

Dear friends, family and those wanting to make a difference,

Recently, our friend and colleague Janice Cook has had her entire world shaken to it's very core due to several unforeseen medical issues. For those who may be coming across this for the first time and do not have the pleasure of knowing Janice personally, please let me give you some insight into who this amazing individual truly is.

She is the voice for the voiceless, advocating for countless individuals who cannot do it themselves implementing change wherever she goes. Spending the majority of her working career as a social service worker has provided Janice the opportunity to work with youth to empower them and find their worth through unimaginable situations. Her passion for helping others only increased as she became an Employment Consultant advocating on behalf of people with disabilities, where she single-handedly created opportunities for individuals who would have never had them otherwise. A career highlight for some was just another day at the office for Janice as she literally changed lives for the better on a daily basis. Through it all she never lost sight of the reason she did it...her son and her step-daughter.

Now, our champion needs us!

A year ago, Janice was admitted to the hospital for what was thought to be an infection. The symptoms of the infection became increasingly intrusive and in a short few weeks, Janice was unable to perform most of her usual daily functions. This disease began interfering with her ability to think, focus, perform physical activities and she became extremely sensitive to all allergens. She had to stop working, wasn’t able to drive and dropped schooling. She could not independently care for her children and her spouse was left single handedly managing all responsibilities at home. Janice did not have medical benefits and was forced into accessing social assistance to make ends meet.

After dozens of medical interventions and advocating for herself in her fragile state, she was diagnosed with a rare disorder, claiming hives were attacking her brain and throat which caused her to go into anaphylaxis whenever coming into contact with an allergen. She finally was able to start treatments and thought her road to recovery was finally underway.

Monthly treatments were not showing improvement, instead things began getting worse. More recently, Janice was told she was misdiagnosed and provided no alternative diagnosis.

Things have dramatically declined to the point where Janice is unable to walk on her own, takes medication every 3 hours so she can breathe on her own, experiences moments of confusion and struggles to eat and drink without help. Janice is now completely reliant on the help of others to survive and care for herself, her home and her family.

Through all of this, Janice’s family is financially struggling to continue to pay for the minor supports that do help and for other bills. They are accessing all the supports they can to survive but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get by. She is back to square one with no end in sight.

A year later, and here we are. Having this illness is challenging enough but combine it with the expenses that the post-pandemic world have presented all of us, have left this once shining light in darkness. She is the definition of positivity and to see that slowly whittle away is heart wrenching. We need her back. With every dollar, financial relief gets closer allowing our warrior to focus on what she really needs to...her health.

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know our friend. Together we can help change her world, as she has done for so many others. We have no doubt that with the help of this campaign, our champion will eventually return with more resolve than ever and continue to change the world as only she can.