About Us

Our History

The Better Days Society was started in 2004 by a group of Vancouver, B.C. businessmen, who wanted to raise money to help children with challenging medical conditions. Our first beneficiary was a 5-year-old girl who had one of the most extreme cases of epilepsy in Canada. Some of her treatment was not covered by the Health Care plan and the costs were too high for the family to proceed. Better Days Society was established to raise money to assist this and other families to receive support that might make better days for them.

The society raises money in a variety of methods. We have run golf tournaments and raffles. As well, we continue to get cash donations from foundations and caring and concerned individuals who want to support our cause. As a Canadian Registered Charity, we are authorized to issue tax receipts to any Canadian-resident donors for any cash donation.

We are a small organization, with 5 Directors (all volunteers) handling the administrative tasks, there is virtually no overhead, which means that all of the funds raised go directly to the kids we are supporting. Our goal is to support a small number of specific situations, so that our efforts can reduce the stress those families are enduring!

Our Current Program

We were introduced to the management at Ronald McDonald House BC (RMH) and had a tour of the facility (if you haven't gone through it, they offer tours to the public).

We learned that for over thirty years, RMH has been providing accommodation for seriously ill children and their families when they must travel to Vancouver for their child's major treatment. The families that stay there are still responsible for their own food, transportation, clothing, and medical costs not covered by the health care plan.

We have also met with Social Workers at BC Children's Hospital (BCCH), who work in a wide range of programs and in-patient wards.

In many cases, parents are having to walk away from their lives in order to move to RMH and BCCH to care for their sick child. Accordingly, many of the things we take for granted, become additional challenges for these families while they are already going through the stress of a seriously ill child. This is where Better Days Society is able to step in. We get referrals from RMH staff and BCCH Social Workers. We review various family needs and provide financial support such as grocery store gift certificates, travel costs, clothing, specialized medications and treatments not covered by the health care etc.

Each story we are presented, is always a unique set of circumstances, that leave us all more motivated and inspired to help as many of these families as our funds allow!